Chorizo

• Try this sausage with scrambled eggs served in flour tortillas for a tastebud-rousing breakfast. Softer in texture than Spanish chorizo, this crumbly spicy pork or beef sausage is flavored with chile powder, cumin, garlic, oregano, ground coriander and sometimes a shot of tequila.

Chorizo Verde

• Make a warming soup with chorizo verde, a pork sausage made famous in the Mexican state of Toluca, where butchers mix green chiles and fresh herbs into the mix to give the sausage its green color and earthy flavor.

Moronga

• Experience a taste adventure with a bite of a moronga (blood sausage) taco. The sausage is another Toluca specialty and is made from fresh pig's blood, mint, onion, garlic, cilantro and spices.

Longaniza

• Cook a link of longaniza, a skinny long sausage, and you may not see much difference in flavor from the chubby chorizo. But in some regions it is different--in the Yucatan it is flavored with achiote, a signature Caribbean spice, and smoked.

Salchichon

• Order a salchichon and you will get a hot dog. The familiar favorite is served in familiar ways south of the border, including the famed Tijuana Death Dog, a hot dog wrapped in bacon.