Filipino Pantry in Halifax: Banana Ketchup, Calamansi, Patis
What banana ketchup, calamansi, patis, bagoong and Filipino vinegar are, how Filipino cooks use them, where they show up on the Barrios menu, and where to buy Filipino ingredients in Halifax.
Barrios Restaurant & Bar
10/25/20264 min read
The Filipino Pantry in Halifax: Banana Ketchup, Calamansi, Patis and More
Filipino cooking comes back to a short list of pantry staples again and again. Learn what these Filipino pantry ingredients do and a menu gets easier to read, and a home kitchen makes more sense.
This is a guide to the basics from Barrios Kitchen & Bar, the Filipino restaurant at 1571 Barrington Street in Halifax, with notes on where each one shows up on our plates.
Banana ketchup
Banana ketchup is a sweet, tangy ketchup made from mashed bananas, sugar, vinegar and spices, and dyed red to look like tomato ketchup. Its invention is usually credited to Filipino food scientist Maria Orosa, at a time when tomatoes were scarce and bananas were not.
It goes on fried eggs, fried chicken and hot dogs, and it is one reason Filipino spaghetti tastes sweet. At Barrios, our torta, a Filipino eggplant omelette, comes with banana ketchup, and Filipino-style spaghetti is available as a party tray for $40.
Suka: vinegar
If one ingredient defines Filipino flavour, it is vinegar. Filipino vinegars are usually made from sugar cane, coconut sap or palm sap, and they can be milder and rounder than the white vinegar in most Canadian kitchens. Sinamak, a Visayan spiced vinegar, is vinegar steeped with chilies, garlic and ginger.
Vinegar goes into the pot for dishes like adobo and paksiw, and onto the table as a dip for anything fried or grilled. At Barrios, our crispy pata and chicken inasal come with a soy vinegar dip, and the beef tapa comes with vinegar on the side.
Toyo: soy sauce
Soy sauce came to the Philippines through Chinese cooking and stayed. It is the other half of the classic Filipino pairing with vinegar. Toyo mixed with calamansi, called toyomansi, is a common dip. Our pork sisig is seasoned with soy sauce and chili, and our beef tapa is marinated in soy sauce and spices. Most soy sauce contains wheat, but the soy sauce we use is gluten free.
Calamansi
Calamansi is a small, round Philippine citrus, green on the outside with orange flesh. It tastes somewhere between a lime and a mandarin, sour with a little sweetness and a strong perfume. Filipinos squeeze it over pancit, into dips and into juice.
Fresh calamansi can be hard to find in Canada, so lemon or lime often stands in. In our kitchen, lemon is what reaches the table: our sisig gets a squeeze of lemon where a cook in the Philippines would use calamansi.
If you are shopping for calamansi in Halifax, be careful with the bottles. Most bottled calamansi on the shelves is a sweetened drink concentrate. It is fine over ice, but it does not belong in a marinade or a dip. Ask for frozen calamansi, or look for a bottle labelled pure juice.
Patis: fish sauce
Patis is Filipino fish sauce, a clear, salty liquid made from fermented fish. It seasons soups like tinola and sinigang, and it is often added at the table in place of salt. Sinigang is part of our Sunday brunch rotation, though never guaranteed on a given Sunday.
If you avoid fish sauce, our pancit bihon and pancit guisado sauces contain no fish sauce, no meat stock and no shrimp paste, and our pinakbet is made without fish sauce or bagoong.
Bagoong: fermented shrimp or fish paste
Bagoong is a salty fermented paste. Bagoong alamang is made from tiny shrimp and is pink or purple before it is cooked. Bagoong isda is made from fish, often anchovies, and is common in Ilocos cooking. Many jars are sautéed with garlic, and often pork and sugar, which turns the paste brown and sweet-salty.
Our kare-kare comes with bagoong, a shrimp paste, on the side. Kare-kare is traditionally seasoned lightly, so you add a little bagoong to each bite to salt it yourself. The sauce is made with peanut, which cannot be left out.
Siling labuyo: small hot chili
Siling labuyo is a small, very hot chili, similar to a bird's eye chili. Most Filipino dishes are not chili-hot, and the chili usually comes on the side, chopped into vinegar or soy so each person chooses their own heat. Our sisig is one of the exceptions, with chili in it.
Atchara: pickled green papaya
Atchara is a sweet-sour pickle of shredded green papaya, carrot and ginger, served with fried and grilled food to cut the richness. Our chicken inasal and bangsilog come with pickled daikon and carrots, which do the same job.
Where to buy Filipino ingredients in Halifax
Kabayan Food Mart, the Filipino grocery with a branch in Halifax and one in Dartmouth, is the first place to look. The Asian grocery stores around the city often carry some of these too. Look for, or ask for:
Cane vinegar, often labelled sukang Iloko, or nipa palm vinegar, often labelled sukang Paombong.
Frozen calamansi, or bottled calamansi labelled pure juice rather than a drink.
Soy sauce, siling labuyo (fresh or frozen), and jarred atchara.
Patis and bagoong in jars.
Banana ketchup, usually shelved near the other sauces.
Visit Barrios
We are at 1571 Barrington Street, open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:30 AM, until 9 PM Tuesday to Thursday and 11 PM on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is Filipino brunch from 10:30 AM to 4 PM, and we are closed on Mondays. Book a table or call 902-444-2515. The full menu is online. Prices shown are from our current menu and may change.
Quick answers
What is banana ketchup made of?
Mashed bananas, sugar, vinegar and spices, coloured red. It is sweeter than tomato ketchup.
What does calamansi taste like?
Somewhere between a lime and a mandarin: sour, a little sweet and very fragrant.
What is patis?
Filipino fish sauce, used to salt soups and stews.
What is bagoong?
A salty fermented paste, made from tiny shrimp (bagoong alamang) or fish (bagoong isda). Filipinos eat it with kare-kare and with green mango. At Barrios it comes with the kare-kare.
What can I substitute for calamansi?
Lime or lemon juice, with a little orange or mandarin juice for sweetness.
Where can I buy Filipino ingredients in Halifax?
Kabayan Food Mart, which has a Halifax branch and a Dartmouth branch, and the Asian grocery stores around the city.