Portuguese sausage, soy sauce scrambled eggs, and rice are a staple in Hawaii and in our home. Learn more about how to cook Portuguese sausage and its roots in Hawaii, plus a little glimpse into the lesser-known North Shore of Oahu. (post first published in April 2012, updated August 2019)
Another recipe inspired by my husband's Hawaiian family is mandu or Korean dumplings.
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The fabled (and frequently forgotten) North Shore of Oahu is known for its waves and beaches, not its cuisine. But surfing swells your appetite (or so I’m told) and many locals and visitors feed that hunger with a visit to Ted’s Bakery in Sunset Beach.
Ted’s serves up local traditional food like our family favorite: Portuguese sausage, rice, and eggs. This is such a staple for kama’aina (local residents) that McDonald’s even offers it on their menu.
What is Portuguese Sausage?
Portuguese sausage is similar to linguica but according to Hawaii Magazine: “What’s now called Portuguese sausage (in Hawaii) is a larger, slightly sweeter and softer sausage than the original linguiça. You can buy it in both mild and hot versions, the latter having a dash of red pepper.”
Our family prefers the spicy style of sausage but many restaurants only offer the mild. Ted’s mild Portuguese sausage met our expectations – pan-fried with a crisp bite on the outside and smoky flavor on the inside.
Only thing missing was the hot kick. But I guess you can’t have it all, all the time.
What are Soy Sauce Scrambled Eggs?
At home, we always make our favorite soy sauce eggs to accompany the Portuguese sausage, a simple twist on classic scrambled eggs that you should add to your BFD (breakfast for dinner) repertoire. Just add soy sauce and touch of milk or cream to your eggs to transform them to something a bit different.
My husband’s Hawaiian/Korean family calls these soy sauce eggs: Kung Jung eggs. We eat portuguese sausage, kung jung eggs and rice at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. And we almost always have a big fruit salad with it as well.
How to Cook Portuguese Sausage
- I like to cut the sausage on a bias to get substantial pieces with a lot of surface area to brown
- You can pan fry it, broil it, or certainly put in on a grill too
- It’s pre-cooked so all you’re trying to do is get a good sear on it and make it hot.
- If you want to reduce the fat, broil on a traditional broiler pan with holes is a great method so the fat can drip through to the bottom (which you might want to line with foil for easy clean up)
How to Prepare Soy Sauce Scrambled Eggs
- Crack the eggs into a bowl
- Add the soy sauce and a touch of milk or cream
- Mix it all together
- Cook in a frying pan with a bit of butter to your desired doneness
Want to hear me talk story about soy sauce eggs? Listen to my guest appearance with Leigh Olson of the podcast The Heritage Cookbook Project where I share a few more details about my culturally blended family and how the simple egg can create dishes from cultures around the world.
What to Serve with Portuguese Sausage and Soy Sauce Eggs
When we prepare Portuguese sausage at home, we always serve it with steamed Japanese short grain rice. Our two favorite brands are Nishiki and Kokuho.
Often we top it with furikake - a Japanese spice blend specifically made for topping rice. Furikake comes in many flavors but always includes dried seaweed and sesame seeds in the blend.
Ted’s offers a fried rice option that @dormantchef sampled. It was outstanding – not only is the portion ample but the flavors and texture are expert – still moist but the grains were separated and had soaked up the ingredients nicely.
We also love a big fruit salad to pair with our rice, eggs and sausage – bonus if you can find some tropical fruits to add to it.
Where to Buy Portuguese Sausage
- Costco carries Silva brand in my area. It’s California-made and excellent
- Or here is a where-to-buy from the Silva web site
- Check out orderhawaiianfood.com
- Also Purity Foods Hawaii
- Or Frank’s Foods is another great Hawaiian-made brand
Also check out my Amazon shop that includes some of my favorite food and food-related products. I am always updating it – please visit often. And let me know if you need specific product recommendations – I am happy to help!
More about Ted’s Bakery on Oahu’s North Shore
Ted’s Bakery draws in many visitors for their Chocolate Haupia Pie (haupia is a gelatinous Hawaiian dessert made with coconut milk) but we found much more to love than their version of chocolate cream pie.
We stopped in for breakfast on the way to Haleiwa, for their Portuguese sausage, rice, and eggs, of course. But not knowing if we’d have time to stop in again, we had to sample their baked goods as well: a malasada (a Portuguese version of a donut), a slice of chocolate haupia pie, and a macadamia nut danish.
I am not a big donut fan but you can ask my kids how many times I marveled at the texture and flavor of their heavenly malasadas. They say Leonard’s in Honolulu has the best malasadas, but I don’t know how they could be better than Ted’s.
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Portuguese Sausage, Rice, and Soy Sauce Eggs
Beth LeeIngredients
- 2-3 cups medium grain Japanese rice or any rice of your choosing
- 2-3 Portuguese sausage links mild or spicy
- 8 eggs
- 3-4 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 4 teaspoon cream or milk
Instructions
- Prepare the rice in a rice cooker or stove top. We have a rice cooker and use 3 cups of rice and about 3 ½ cups of water (or fill to 3 cup line) and it takes about 15 or 20 minutes to complete the cooking cycle.
- Slice the Portuguese sausage on the diagonal.
To cook the sausage, I use one of two methods:
- Broiling is the healthier approach, allowing some of the fat to drain off and is an easy way to cook a large batch fairly easily. Watch closely because it goes from perfect to burned quickly. I would guess about 5 minutes on the first side and 3 minutes on the second side.
- Pan frying is the other method and what I did for this post. The added benefit was the yummies left in the bottom of the pan, some of which I wiped away but the remainder, along with just a dab of butter was all I needed to scramble up the eggs. It added a nice depth of flavor, even beyond the soy sauce, to the eggs.
To prepare the scrambled eggs:
- Crack the 8 eggs into a medium-size bowl. Add the soy sauce and milk or cream and whisk briskly. They will have just a tinge of brown in their color. If they are too brown, you've probably overdone the amount of soy and they will be too salty. The amount of soy I have suggested is a guideline, adjust to your liking.
- Heat a medium size fry pan (I usually use non-stick) to medium, add a bit of butter, swirl it around and then add the eggs. Mix quickly until almost dry then divide among your plates or serve from a bowl at the table.
Christine Paula Dodson
The Instacart guy brought me Portuguese sausage instead of the liverwurst on the list. Searched google and came across this recipe. I had sesame seeds, seaweed, sweet rice vinegar, parsley, and rice for the rice dish. I followed your directions for the sausage and the eggs. I think I have a new breakfast infatuation!
Beth Lee
I was just saying to my daughter the other day that sometimes when things don't go as planned, new opportunities emerge! I am so glad you found my recipe and enjoyed your portuguese sausage. It's simple but delicious and comforting food. And you had all the right things to make it deliciously Hawaiian! Thanks for stopping by!
Mike
Linguicia is Portuguese sausage, mild while chourico would be a spicier version... if you can get someone in California to send it to you i would try a more authentic style portuguese sausage https://www.gasparssausage.com
Beth Lee
I'd love to try traditional Portuguese sausage with a lineage to Portugal. I will see if I can get my hands on some! Thanks for the tip!
Lori Eurich
I’m glad you mentioned the furikake (seasoning) on the rice since it wasn’t in the article. This is a must and a fave of mine since I was little. It comes in many varieties at Japanese grocery stores.
Beth Lee
Thank you for pointing it out!!! In fact when I made this for a crowd this weekend, someone brought furikake and it really makes the rice so good - takes it to another level and adds some umami to the whole dish that really works. I'll add in more info!
[email protected]
I've never been to Hawaii, but I am hoping to go this year or next. And when I do, you can bet that I'll try to find the local version of this. I love breakfast food and I can't imagine anything better than sausage and eggs, except that with a side of rice, with a steaming cup of good coffee. Oh, could I also have one of those malasadas.
Beth Lee
Laura promise me that when you decide to go, you'll ping me. I love to help people plan their trips to Hawaii - I know all the islands pretty well and would be thrilled to help you decide where to go on your first trip. I know it's a long haul from the east coast, but you won't regret it!
Fred Butterfield
Looks excellent, Beth! My wife and I just finished our 4th trip to Hawai'i (Kaua'i and O'ahu) -- to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary (although it took us 31 years of married life to get there, with our sons' two weddings, etc.) I think I ate the traditional grilled Portuguese sausage, steamed white rice, and scrambled eggs three of the six days were were in Honolulu, so I'm looking forward to trying your recipe here in Virginia! 🙂
Question: What is the seasoning you used on top of the rice. Looks like it might be dried parsley flakes and perhaps sesame seeds? I've also seen chefs add sliced scallions to the eggs -- which we'll probably do.
Finally, have you used either of the following two mail-order options to purchase your Portuguese sausage here on the Mainland? Just curious.
http://www.hawaiianfoodonline.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=113&ParentCat=10
http://regospurity.com/our-products.asp
Mahalo! 🙂
Sincerely,
Fred (for Janet) B.
[email protected]
Beth Lee
Hau`oli la Ho'omana'o to you and Janet! Thanks for sharing your Hawaii story - we are heading back to the Big Island in June and can't wait.
The green stuff on the rice (boy do I need to update this post - can't believe I didn't say what it was!!!) is furikake, which is toasted sesame seeds and nori. You can buy it at the Japanese market. Or just put toasted sesame seeds and chopped up nori (seaweed) on the rice. Also green onions in the eggs sounds like a great idea.
As far as ordering - I haven't ordered from either of those places BUT I have heard that the Franks Foods portuguese sausage made in Hilo Hawaii is the best. So I would go with that brand for sure!
Enjoy and let me know how it all turns out!
Fred Butterfield
Fantastic, Beth -- and we located furikake both on Amazon and nearby (locally) at Wegmans.
Thank you/Mahalo -- enjoy your upcoming trip to the Big Island! 🙂
Best regards,
Fred (for Janet) B.
Vicki F
Thanks so much for this post! I used to live on Kauai and spent a wild summer on the North Shore as well. Kauai had it's own island made sausage that was ono. I made some of the best Portuguese soup with it. Really missing Hawaii these days...
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Oh I would love your recipe for the soup! Kauai is a wonderful island. Didn't know there was a sausage maker there tho! Glad this post brought back good memories!
ellescreations
Yummy is right!! Makes me want to go to Hawaii, but since that' s probably not in the cards this year, I'm so glad you found a way to bring a taste of it home. Thanks for sharing!
P.S. I'm visiting from the Sharefest 🙂
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Thanks for visiting! This is, indeed, an easy way to bring some Aloha spirit to your home when you can't traverse the ocean to go get some!
LBDDiaries (@LBDDiaries)
p.s. do you have a recipe on the pie?
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Ted's won't give out the recipe but here's one attempt at it:
http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2009/8/5/chocolate_haupia_pie_recipe
lbddiaries
Wow that looks good! I bet it would also be good with the Cajun sausage I love - andouille, a chewy smoked sausage that I get from http://www.cajungrocer.com. I will google your Portuguese sausage to see if I can find it near Arkansas! I can't wait to try this.
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Here's one resource for the Portuguese sausage:
http://suresave.com/index.php/component/option,com_ixxocart/id,92/is_print_version,true/lang,en/p,product/parent,15/
And yes, I think Cajun Andouille would be delicious as well - maybe change up the additions to the eggs to match. Yummy!
Nate @ House of Annie
Yum yum! I haven't had Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice for a long time, ever since we ran out of our supply from the last time we went back to Honolulu.
Great tip about broiling the sausage. Pan-frying can get messy.
Leonard's is indeed the best malasada (IMO) in Hawaii.
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Next trip, we'll be sure to stop at Leonard's - we intended to once back in Honolulu but just couldn't fit it in.
Frank's Foods from Hilo has great sausage and I understand some Japanese markets carry it. Hard to go without it for too long, eh?!
Nate @ House of Annie
Do you mean the Japanese shops in San Jose Japantown, or at Mitsuwa on Saratoga, or at the Marukai in Cupertino?
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Nate – I am told by a reliable source that Nijiya Market in Japantown carries the Frank’s Foods brand. I will try to get there next week and report back.
Carol Sacks
Beth, we are huge breakfast-for-dinner people. Will have to try this soon. Great post!
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Sometimes bkfst for dinner is just right, isn't it?
sandy corman
Man that chocolate pie looks delicious. So do the rest of the goodies. I am going to have to start cooking again.
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
This is so easy - you should try it. It's a nice twist on scrambled eggs that you just might like!
bibberche
This looks just right for dinner! I am intrigued by soy-sauce eggs - have to try:) And where would you buy Portuguese sausage in the U.S.? I am assuming you managed to bring some from Oahu:)
I am so grateful for my girls as I can share almost any meal with one of them!
And now go get some rest! We ain't young chickens any more (although I am not giving in yet, and it seems, neither are you!)
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
Hi Lana - good question about where to buy the sausage. I have found variations at costco and recently at whole foods. For authentic made in Hawaii sausage, you can look up where Frank's Foods from Hilo distributes in your area. For example, in my area there is a Japanese store that carries it. I also got a tip from a friend about a Portuguese butcher nearby that makes it. I am sure in your area you will find a good source!
I too am blessed with kids that will eat anywhere and anything with me! It's become part of the fabric of our family. It's great, isn't it?
Mike
If you can't find it locally. You can do like I do and order it online from only from hawaii ( onlyfromhawaii.com )
Beth
Thanks for the suggestion Mike - think I'll go over and check that site out right now!