It used to be just a summer delight sold as a refreshing sweetened snack on the side streets of the Philippine countryside. Now, you can have it all year round available in mall fast food courts and even in classy Filipino restaurants.
It is known as the “king of Filipino desserts”, not just because of its lusciously fascinating icy sweetness, but also because it reflects the exquisite blend of the variety of Filipino cultures and personalities. It’s called the “halo-halo” rightly translated as “mix-mix” because the Filipino people are indeed a beautiful and succulent mixture of flavors and colors.
Halo-halo is best prepared by slightly overcooking the fruits and beans ingredients separately in water with enough sugar to deliciously sweeten. Overcooked starchy ingredients make the halo-halo really creamy instead of watery when thoroughly mixed with the milk and the ice. For better creaminess, it would be best to use condensed milk instead of evaporated milk.
The pre-cooked and adequately sweetened ingredients include the cooking banana (saba), jackfruit (nangka), sweet potato (camoteng baging), purple yam (ube), coconut sport (macapuno), coconut gel (nata de coco), palm fruit (kaong), white beans, small red beans and colored tapioca and gelatin to enhance the desserts aesthetic quality.
Freshly scraped fruits like melon and the young coconut (buko) could better be added for a taste of fresh fruit flavor. This mixture of sweetened overcooked ingredients accented by thick threads of fresh fruits and condensed milk when topped by shaved ice, caramel custard (leche flan) and a scoop of ice cream makes the halo-halo truly the king of Filipino desserts.
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