Longganisa (Longanisa): The Filipino Sausage in Halifax
What longganisa is, sweet hamonado vs garlicky de recado, regional styles from Vigan to Lucban, how to eat it as longsilog, and where to try Filipino sausage in Halifax at Barrios.
Barrios Restaurant & Bar
11/6/20263 min read
Longganisa (Longanisa): The Filipino Sausage, and Where to Try It in Halifax
Longganisa, also spelled longanisa, is the Filipino breakfast sausage. It is usually pork, short and plump, and it comes either sweet or garlicky depending on where the cook grew up. Filipinos tend to have strong opinions about which is right.
This guide from Barrios Kitchen & Bar, the Filipino restaurant at 1571 Barrington Street in Halifax, covers the main styles, how longganisa is eaten, and where to find it here.
Sweet or garlicky
The name comes from the Spanish longaniza, but Filipino longganisa has gone its own way. Most styles fall into two camps:
Hamonado: sweet, cured with sugar, so it fries up sticky and caramelised.
De recado: savoury and garlicky, often with vinegar and black pepper.
A few regional styles
Almost every province has its own longganisa. Some of the best known:
Vigan, from Ilocos Sur: small, very garlicky and a little sour from cane vinegar.
Lucban, from Quezon: garlicky and tangy, with dried oregano. Quezon is our chef Nino's home province.
Pampanga: sweet, in the hamonado style.
Cebu: the chorizo de Cebu, sweet, reddish and firm.
How Filipinos eat it: longsilog
At breakfast, longganisa comes as longsilog: longganisa, sinangag (garlic fried rice) and itlog (a fried egg). A dish of vinegar with garlic and chili on the side cuts the richness. It is the same family as tapsilog, with beef tapa, and bangsilog, with milkfish.
Where to try Filipino sausage in Halifax
Longganisa is on our Sunday brunch every week, on the breakfast side with tocino, pandesal and siomai. Ours is sweet and garlicky at the same time, both flavours in one sausage. Brunch runs every Sunday from 10:30 AM to 4 PM and costs $29 per adult, $15 for children 12 and under, and nothing for children 5 and under.
From Tuesday to Saturday, longganisa is not on our menu, but you can ask for it during your visit; availability and price are confirmed then. Call 902-444-2515 before you come in for it, or ask your server. If it is available, ask whether it can come with garlic rice and an egg for a longsilog.
On the regular menu, the silog-style plates are:
Beef tapa, $18, with garlic rice and two eggs.
Bangsilog, $17, pan-fried milkfish with garlic fried rice, a sunny side egg and pickled daikon and carrots.
Cooking longganisa at home
You will find frozen longganisa at Asian grocers around Halifax. A common way to cook it: put the sausages in a pan with a little water, cover and simmer until cooked through, then take the lid off, let the water boil away, and fry them in their own fat until browned. Sweet styles brown fast, so keep the heat moderate. Always follow the cooking directions on the package.
Fry your rice in the same pan with garlic, add a fried egg, and you have longsilog.
Visit Barrios
We are at 1571 Barrington Street, open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:30 AM. We close at 9 PM Tuesday to Thursday and 11 PM on Friday and Saturday, and we are closed on Mondays. Book a table or call 902-444-2515. Prices shown are from our current menu and may change.
Quick answers
What is longganisa?
A Filipino pork sausage, either sweet (hamonado) or garlicky (de recado), eaten mostly at breakfast.
Is it longganisa or longanisa?
Both spellings are used in the Philippines.
What is longsilog?
Longganisa with garlic fried rice and a fried egg. It is not on our menu at Barrios, but you can ask for longganisa during your visit, and it is on our Sunday brunch every week.
Where can I eat longganisa in Halifax?
At our Sunday brunch every week. From Tuesday to Saturday, it is not on our menu, but you can ask your server; availability and price are confirmed then. The one we serve is sweet and garlicky in one sausage.