Manila's Favorite Dessert

In or out of season, on a hot or cold day, we just love eating Halo-Halo. It's a year-round well-loved merienda or after-meal delicacy. No doubt, it's Manila's favorite dessert. And if you plan to be in Manila soon, make arrangements for a halo-halo date with the family.

Visiting Manila without getting even a small cup of this iced delicacy makes for an incomplete tour of the country--even if you have gone visiting Palawan, the Cordilleras, Mt. Apo, Cebu, and Bohol. And mind you, each region of the Philippines has its own halo-halo version. And I can't wait to taste that variety which mixes a drip or two of lambanog on the shaved-ice fruity delicacy--I think it's in Quezon province. In Metro Manila, just take to the malls and enjoy traditional halo-halo at food courts.

Halo-halo, by the way, is a mix of tropical fruits (sweetened banana and langka or jackfruit, coconut shreds, melon and mango scoops, ube jam, sweet potato chunks, kaong or nata de coco, sweetened beans, and many others) topped with shaved ice and big chunks of leche flan with lavish amounts of milk and sweetened with syrup. Sometimes, it's double topped with a big scoop (or scoops) of ice cream--just like the picture above ordered by my niece at SM North. It's a huge bowl of probably 15- to 20-pound capacity.

Umm, nope, you don't put ketchup on halo-halo. I think the ketchup bottles included in the picture were used for the fried chicken they ate prior to the halo-halo.

Because halo-halo is predominantly carbohydrates, you better plan to follow it up with a physical activity, like tour-walking Manila for fitness. Or just brisk walk around the mall where you are as you window shop--and always take the stairs. With a big bowl like that in the picture, you probably need to brisk walk for 1 and a half hours to neutralize all that calories--plus 3 capsules of Vital-C non acidic Vitamin C an hour before eating your halo-halo. Vital-C is a good weight loss supplement, by the way.

Each mall in this country is sure to have Manila's favorite dessert, whether summer or rainy season, or even in the coldest days of Christmas.

And you know what? I have a tip for you--my own version of halo-halo. We have what we call, Ginataang Halo-Halo, which is a mix of tropical or native fruits with chewy bilo-bilo and cooked in coconut milk. Let it cool down and pour on milk and one or 3 scoops of ice cream. Now that ought to be Manila's favorite dessert, a much better halo-halo version, I believe. You should try it sometime. Just make sure you don't forget the walkfit Manila session after to shed off the extra weight.