During summer what else will quench your thirst but a glass of ‘something’ cold.
Many people around the world have their own concoction of smoothies, shakes, and ice cream to beat the summer heat.
In the Philippines, Halo-Halo (mix-mix in English translation) is a truly Pinoy cold dessert. It has a combination of more than a dozen of sweetened fruits such as saba bananas, coconut sport, jackfruit, sweet potato, cassava, sweetened beans (kidney, chick peas, mung beans), tapioca, sweet nata de coco, sweet sugar palm fruit, and cubed gulaman/jelly. The combination of a spoonful of each sweetened delights, is topped with crushed ice and evaporated milk with pinipig (roasted popped rice), leche flan, ube halaya (sweet purple yam)…phew! That’s quite a lot, right?!
The MIX-MIX action is when you have to mix all the ingredients first to combine the flavours and enjoy every spoonful of the dessert. đ
Every region in the Philippines has their own version of this summer dessert. Depending on the fruit or sweetened item available.
This Halo-Halo has more than a dozen of combinations of the sweetened ingredients. You can tell that they cooked these ingredients the old-fashioned way as if your Granny used to cook them. For the topping, instead of popped rice, they used corn flakes which are more convenient nowadays. Instead of evaporated milk, they used full cream pasteurized carabao’s milk. The milk is served cold and in a small plastic container separated from the Halo-Halo glass.
The price ranges from P50.00 (thatâs more than a dollar) up to P 150.00 (almost $3.00). During summer, most of the fast food chain offers this dessert and also some high-end restaurants.
// Wrote by Tere Bernardino, The Philippines
