Halo – halo

November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ Connie

halo-haloHalo-halo, literally mix-mix, is a popular summer midday snack or dessert. It is a mixture of preserved sweets like beans, mongo, saba bananas, langka (jackfruit), nata de coco and kaong (sugar palm nut) served with shaved ice, milk, sugar, toasted pinipig (soft-dough-stage rice grains pounded and winnowed to separate hulls and debris from kernels), leche flan (custard) and ube halaya (purple yam jam). The more precise description of halo-halo is as follows: 1) Spoonfuls of preserved sweets are placed in a tall glass. 2) Shaved ice and sugar are added. 3) Milk is poured over the ice. 4) Finally, a teaspoonful each of leche flan and ube halaya, and a sprinkling of toasted pinipig are placed on top of the ice. Many restaurants nowadays substitute commercial ice cream for the leche flan and ube. Halo-halo is also good that way but without the leche flan and ube, it just doesn’t seem complete.

The photo was taken from the Bulawan Floating Seafood Restaurant.

Bulawan is located in the town of Pililla in the province of Rizal. We were planning on having our mid-afternoon snack there during our January 23rd road trip but we realized we were still full from the heavy picnic lunch at the Sierra Madre resort and convention center. We decided we’d have halo-halo nonetheless.

Bulawan is a series of huts “floating” on a fish pond. It was recommended by Jet who also warned me that the place was under renovation and fishing was not allowed for the moment. Ordinarily, she said, customers go fishing and their catch is cooked according to their preference. The halo-halo was not the best I’ve had but it wasn’t bad either. Definitely much better than the stuff we get from fast food chains. We’re planning on going back in the summer when renovation is over so we can catch our own fish and have them grilled or made into soup.

Rating: Well, we only tried the halo-halo… Can’t vouch for the seafood dishes which are really the house specialties. The service is okay, facilities are okay (despite the renovation going on when we were there). What I didn’t like though is having a videoke machine in every corner of the place. It’s a seafood restaurant, after all, not a videoke bar. Had the place been full when we were there, the noise would have detracted from the overall experience.

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