Halo-Halo at Panciteria de Manila

Halo-Halo, a photo by raise my voice on Flickr.

Although I definitely had enough to eat when I finished my chicken adobo for lunch today at Panciteria de Manila, I simply had to try the Halo-Halo, a popular Filipino summer dessert.

First, let me clarify something: it is pronounced "hallo hallo," not like the round thing hovering over my head that gets more tarnished year after year. Let me try to draw a mental picture of exactly how epic this dessert is: it was a large plastic cup like the ones used for bubble tea, with ripe bananas, white beans, creamed corn, and young coconut slices at the bottom. Atop that was a mountain of shaved ice and milk. Topping the whole thing off was a scoop of purple ice cream (taro flavoured - sort of like a purple yam) and half of a creme brulee tart. I had to have instructions on how to eat it.

First, I consumed the ice cream and tart. The ice cream is so delicious, I would be happy just to have an order of that. Then, I had to mix the shaved ice and milk with the ingredients at the bottom of the cup. I joked with Bayani and my tablemates that this was an interactive dessert. The results were creamy, sweet, refreshing, and appealing in texture. Did I mention how huge it was? I have plans to go back just to have one of these.