I fell in love with the halo-halo on my first trip to the Philippines. Shaved ice and/or coconut milk concoctions appear in various guises right across East Asia, of course. (Think cendol, ABC, es dawet, es oyen, bingsoo, qing bu liang, and so on. In fact, the halo-halo is thought to be a descendant of a Japanese dessert.)

But halo-halo is somehow zanier than all the rest -- completely, wackily, endearingly OTT in its exuberance of ingredients.

Or so I thought...

It turns out, however, that there is another school of thought on the halo-halo. Razon's, and its relative, Teresita's, offer up a much simpler version.

Complementing the indispensable ice and milk, there are just three key ingredients (and you can add optional jackfruit):

-- saba banana = a cooking banana originating from the Philippines (prepared most mysteriously and deliciously in this case, with a result that reminded me of the bottom of a sherry trifle...)
-- macapuno = what we knew in Indonesia as kopyor = soft, naturally gelatinous coconut flesh
-- leche flan = creamy, caramelly heaven on a plate (sometimes this is translated as "creme caramel", but if you've only ever experienced the insipid and wobbly things that gad around Europe under that moniker, then you need to know that this is in a qualitatively different league).



But the flamboyant incarnation of the halo-halo is still very much present. We tried out the Chowking version (at the top), as it figures in several lists. Packed with beans, fruit, and jelly pieces, and topped off with leche flan, ube ice-cream, and pinipig (toasted glutinous rice), it's really pretty good, and you can get a small version to complement your CNY chao fan and dumplings (thus making yourself feel less guilty).

Not particularly shouted about, it seems, but nevertheless highly commendable was the halo-halo from Icebergs. This version has cornflakes as the crunchy bit, and comes with both vanilla and ube ice-cream. You also get leche flan, ube puree, sweet corn, red jelly, green jelly, jackfruit, nata de coco, saba banana, and sweet potato. It comes in a huge bowl that would be ideal for sharing (notice the use of the conditional mood there...).



Halo-halo just means mix-mix. So the word can be attached to things that aren't the classic halo-halo ice dessert, and might even be warm.

Like the ginataang halo-halo from Via Mare. Swimming in the hot coconut milk were taro, purple yam, sweet potato, plantain, bilo-bilo (glutinous rice balls), and tapioca pearls. It's very similar to the bubur cha cha we get in Malaysia.

That wraps up Prudence's halo-halo investigations for this trip. But she plans to be back for more. Watch this space...