Halo-halo, a beloved dessert from the Philippines — one that’s as valued as ice cream is in America — found me through PBS Kids and my Filipino godmothers, Rina and Tanya. They were here last week on a visit from New York City — where I lived before moving to Provincetown in July.
Translated to English as “mix-mix,” halo-halo combines shaved ice, evaporated milk, and a variety of ingredients chosen by whoever is making it. Those include fresh tropical fruits along with a few special ingredients from the Philippines: bouncy squares of jellied nata de coco (which my friends and I also like to eat on their own), slightly tangy sweetened plantains known as saba bananas or minatamis na saging; a sweet purple yam paste called ube halaya, sweet red beans, and jackfruit preserves. Then there are scoops of ice cream. And the whole dessert is often topped with a slice of flan.
My five-year-old little brother, Bubba, watches a show called Jelly, Ben, and Pogo, about a Filipino-American brother and sister and their sea monster friend. After my brother watched an episode where they made halo-halo, he developed a craving for it. He knew it would be delicious.
Bubba bugged my parents for almost a year, begging them to make halo-halo. When he found out we were going to make it this summer with our godmothers, he was over the Moon. His campaign worked. “It looked so good,” said Bubba, “so I wanted to try it.”
But when my mom asked our godmothers to make halo-halo with us, it turned out to be a new experience for them, too. “We had never made it ourselves,” Tanya told us. “It was a fun challenge.”
Tanya told us that in the Philippines she and Rina usually get halo-halo in restaurants. When Tanya was a kid, her grandmother would take her to the neighbors’, where their lolas — Tagalog for “grandmas” — would sell halo-halos in front of their houses from something like lemonade stands.
You would judge a halo-halo by the quality of the flan and the ube, and by how milky the dessert was. “Some people use too much ice,” Tanya said. “And you also judge the quality by how fine the ice is.” You want the ice to be shaved so that it’s almost powdery. My godmothers brought a hand-cranked ice shaver with them on their visit for that purpose.
After a special meal with my godmothers, we cleared the dining room table and brought out the ingredients from the kitchen. Bubba sat on the edge of his seat waiting for the halo-halo-making to start. It was dark outside, but a bright lamp at my parents’ desk illuminated the room. Each of us got a turn shaving the ice, even Bubba. “When it was at the bottom, it was hard to turn,” Bubba said later.
We made individual cups so we could each mix up our own. We scooped two or three spoonfuls of nata de coco, sweetened red beans, and fruit into each cup. When we had a pile of shaved ice, we spooned it in to fill the cups by about a third. Bubba poured the evaporated milk over each serving — enough to reach the top of the ice. Then we added scoops of ice cream: you’re supposed to use mango or vanilla, but we used what we had. (Cookie dough is not bad.) Then a small spoonful of the ube paste. We skipped the flan; we still had very big desserts in front of us. For the last ingredient, we poked a couple of wafer sticks into our ice cream to add some crunch. After all that, we still couldn’t eat our creation yet: we had to mix.
Bubba was right. In the end, with the flavors all mixed together, this was probably one of the best desserts I’ve ever had. Bubba had a few spoonfuls, but when he hit the saba bananas he stopped. Their sour flavor threw him off. Maybe it wasn’t his favorite dessert ever, but I think he’ll crave it again. Making it was really fun.
Halo-Halo
Nata de coco coconut jelly
Sweetened red beans
Fresh tropical fruit and/or fruit preserves, such as jackfruit
Minatamis na saging (also known as saba bananas)
Shaved ice, shaved as fine as possible
Evaporated milk
Mango or vanilla ice cream
Ube halaya (sweet purple yam paste)
Slices of leche flan
Chocolate wafer sticks or pinipig (toasted young rice similar to Rice Krispies) for the garnish
- Scoop spoonfuls of coconut jelly, sweet beans, fruits, and other sweet ingredients into the bottom of a tall, clear glass.
- Add shaved ice — the finer the better — to fill your glass by one third.
- Pour evaporated milk over the top.
- Top with ice cream, leche flan, and a spoonful of ube halaya and finish with wafer sticks or pinipig as a garnish.
- Serve and let each person mix the ingredients in the glass.
Lola Schiffer-Kehou is in 6th grade at the Provincetown IB Schools.
