thumb|upright=0.6|Halo-halo made in [[Spring Valley, San Diego County, California|Spring Valley, California]]

Halo-halo is a popular cold dessert in the Philippines made with crushed ice, evaporated milk or sometimes coconut milk, and flavoring such as ube jam (ube halaya), sweetened kidney beans or garbanzo beans, coconut strips, sago, gulaman (agar), pinipig, boiled taro or soft yams in cubes, flan, slices or portions of fruit preserves, and other root crop preserves. The dessert is often topped with a scoop of ube ice cream and sometimes other fruit-based ice cream flavors like melon or coconut, though it is just as likely to go without ice cream as well. It is usually prepared in a tall clear glass and served with a long spoon. Halo-halo is considered to be the unofficial national dessert of the Philippines.

Name

Halo-halo is often incorrectly literally translated as "mix-mix" in English. The word, which does not necessarily refer to the dessert, is an adjective properly meaning "mixed [together]" in Filipino. It is a reduplication of the Filipino verb halò, which means "to mix".

Halúhalò is the prescribed spelling of the word in the Commission on the Filipino Language's official dictionary.

Some authors specifically attribute halo-halo to the 1920s or 1930s Japanese migrants in the Quinta Market of Quiapo, Manila, due to its proximity to the Insular Ice Plant, Quiapo's main ice supply. The Insular Ice Plant was built in 1902 by the Americans, which became the ice supplier for the Philippines. Although the ice plant was built, it was not the first introduction of ice to the Philippines. In the mid-19th century, the United States exported ice from Wenham Lake to different countries, including India, Australia, and the Philippines.

A similar Visayan dessert is binignit, referred to as "ginataáng halo-halo" in Tagalog ("mixed [ingredients] in coconut milk") and commonly shortened to "ginataán". While it uses a lot of the same ingredients, it is instead usually served hot.

Halo-halo was featured in season 1, episode 2 of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown when its host Anthony Bourdain visited a Jollibee branch, a Filipino fast-food restaurant, in Los Angeles. Bourdain praised the dessert and called it "oddly beautiful". He posted a photo of the dessert on his Twitter account. The show featured the dessert again in season 7, episode 1 when Bourdain learns how Filipinos make the dessert.

Halo-halo was featured as a Quickfire Challenge dish season 4, episode 7 of the American reality television series Top Chef. American contestant Dale Talde prepared the dessert, which featured avocado, mango, kiwifruit, and nuts. Talde was named one of the top three Quickfire Challenge dishes by guest judge Johnny Iuzzinni of Jean Georges. Talde also made the dish in a later episode.

The dessert was featured on a "Delicious Destinations" edition episode of Bizarre Foods.

Halo-halo can be found in a wide range of places, from food stands to 5-star hotels. Filipino fast-food restaurants like Jollibee, Max's, Mang Inasal, and Chowking serve halo-halo.

See also

  • Ice buko
  • Iskrambol
  • Knickerbocker (Philippines)
  • Mais con yelo

References

Further reading

  • Halo-halo —from the Philippine Inquirer Internet Edition