A Sweet and Savory Escape from the Heat

1 day ago

Yesterday was scorching hot. ☀️

The sun was so bright, and the air was heavy. I spent my whole afternoon resting on a hammock under our big, shady avocado tree. It was peaceful, but I needed something to cool me down from the summer heat. Suddenly, I had a huge craving for halo-halo. 😋

I asked my husband to go on a mission to find the best halo-halo in town. Luckily, he found a newly opened snack house nearby called "Hello Halo." When he returned, he was carrying treats! He brought back creamy halo-halo and two boxes of delicious siomai. I was so excited to dig in. 😍

What is Halo-Halo?
If you don't know, halo-halo is a very famous Filipino cold dessert. The word "halo" means "mix." This dessert is truly a mix of everything sweet and delicious 😁

Here is what was inside my cup 👇

At the bottom, there was shredded iced milk with chewy gulaman (jelly) strips and cubes.

In the middle, you can pick a flavor for the center. We had options like avocado and ube with a big scoop of cold ice cream.

For the toppings,,, this is the best part!

It was loaded with crunchy cornflakes and corn kernels.

Sweet purple yam paste (Ube Halaya).

Sweetened plantains (bananas).

Light rice puffs and colorful jelly cubes.

A creamy slice of leche flan on top.

To balance all the sweetness, we also had the savory siomai. These are tasty steamed dumplings. Some were wrapped in thin dough, and others were wrapped in dark seaweed (nori), Japanese-style siomai.

We dipped them into a small cup of chili garlic oil. It was spicy and salty, which tasted perfect alongside the cold, sweet dessert.