It’s been said that this colorful dessert truly captures the “east-meets-west” culture of Filipinos. The ingredients of Halo-halo, our traditional summer cooler, come from a wide variety of influences---leche flan from the Spanish, garbanzos from the Indian, red mung beans from the Chinese, and the shaved ice was introduced by the Americans.
Halo-halo, from Tagalog word halo, “mix-mix” is a mixture of shaved ice, milk and sugar made flavorful by a variety of fruits and beans caramelized in sugar, fresh fruits and topped with leche flan, purple yam or ice cream. Other ingredients may include fresh jackfruit, nata de coco, pinipig, sugar palm fruit, sweet corn kernels, gelatin, macapuno, sweetened bananas, kiwifruit, avocado, sago, and ripe mango. I even had a halo-halo once with mandarin orange.
My halo-halo was served at the Malagos Garden Resort in Davao City.
