Lateral Thought

The clues can be answered with the help of the given enumerations:

• Pakistani capital (7) KARACHI

• Competed for position (8) JOCKEYED

• Apple picker or ditch digger, say (7) LABORER

• Cops, informally and collectively (4) FUZZ

• ______ bag (restaurant take-home) (6) DOGGIE

• McGwire supplement, for short (5) ANDRO

• Type of freckle (7) EPHELIS

• Places for cookouts (6) PATIOS

• Walking stick, to a biologist (7) PHASMID

• Twelve angry men, theatrically (6) JURORS

• Serious offense (5) CRIME

• Iconic Stallone soldier (5) RAMBO

• Feed and sustain (7) NOURISH

• Places for handcuffs (6) WRISTS

• Specific North American (7) MEXICAN

Each of the answers can uniquely have its first and last letters replaced by the same letter to produce a new word:

• KARACHI EARACHE
• JOCKEYED SOCKEYES
• LABORER TABORET
• FUZZ OUZO
• DOGGIE NOGGIN
• ANDRO INDRI
• EPHELIS APHELIA
• PATIOS NATION
• PHASMID CHASMIC
• JURORS AURORA
• CRIME PRIMP
• RAMBO IAMBI
• NOURISH TOURIST
• WRISTS ARISTA
• MEXICAN LEXICAL

The new letters spell ESTONIAN CAPITAL, which is TALLINN. Performing this step once more yields the answer, GALLING.