Ruby Tuesday: Red Gulaman in Halo-Halo

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

Halo-halo (from Tagalog halo, “mix mix”) is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served cold in a tall glass or bowl.

There is no specific recipe for this dessert, and a wide variety of ingredients are used. The order in which the ingredients are added varies widely. Primary ingredients generally include boiled red mung beans, kidney beans, garbanzos, sugar palm fruit (kaong), coconut sport (macapuno), and plantains caramelized in sugar. Other components may include jackfruit (langka), star apple, tapioca or sago, nata de coco, purple yam (ube) or sweet potato (kamote), sweetened corn kernels or pounded crushed young rice (pinipig), leche flan or custard, ice cream and gelatin. Other fruits, such as papayas, avocados, kiwifruit, bananas or cherries, may also be added. Some preparations also include ice cream on top of the halo-halo.

Generally, condensed milk or evaporated milk is used instead of fresh milk, due to the tropical climate of the Philippines.

In terms of arrangement, most of the ingredients (fruits, beans, and other sweets) are first placed inside the tall glass, followed by the shaved ice. This is then sprinkled with sugar, and topped with either (or a combination of) leche flan, ube halaya, or ice cream. Condensed milk is poured into the mixture upon serving.

The dessert exemplifies the “east-meets-west” culture of the Filipinos, with the ingredients used coming from a wide variety of influences (to cite some examples: red mung beans which are from the Chinese, garbanzos from the Indian, leche flan from the Spanish, and shaved ice itself which was introduced to the islands by the Americans).

Halo-Halo is one my late mother’s favorite. We do have a lot of childhood memories with it as Mamang usually treats me and Carol after school or when we go to the market with her during market day. I could just remember how our eyes would lighten when Mamang will lead us to the Halo-Halo stalls or in the bakeshop in front of the fish market building.

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