Under the Halo of “Halo-halo”

With the scorching 32 degrees Celsius, Cebuanos everywhere rattle off for a cool shade, swarming around a little tree’s narrow canopy while murmuring prayers for weather saints: “Alimo-ut ug init jud kaayo!” (It’s very humid and hot!)

These ubiquitous words seem to be more popular than Kris Aquino vying for the vice presidency and here in Cebu, mind you, you’ll excrete more sweat riding a jeepney than staying in the gym.

Seriously, with Cebu’s mercury rising, what more could be so cool than the all-time favorite “Halo-halo”?

Yes, there are ice candy and ice pops, buko bar and ice drops, yet the chill brought by this heavenly cool blend of tropical fruits, ice and milk is far greater than these teen-sweet sorties. This writer admits growing up with those summer sorties, but our very own ‘Halo-halo’ strikes me the most, maybe it’s because when I was small (and until today) none of the kiddos can translate its name formally into English or maybe this summer favorite reflects the true Filipino ingenuity, not only as a summer favorite but also in all phases of every Cebuano’s life.

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

It added, the ingredients include: boiled kidney beans, garbanzos, sugar palm fruit (“kaong”), coconut sport (“macapuno”), and plantains caramelized in sugar, jackfruit (“langka”), gulaman, tapioca, nata de coco, sweet potato, kamote, cheese, and pounded crushed young rice (“pinipig”).

Cebuanos are fond of adding thin slices of ripe banana, ube, and mangoes.

In terms of arrangement, wiki added, 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, purple yam (“ubeng pula”), or ice cream. The evaporated milk is poured into the mixture upon serving.

Might as well add that in Cebu, there are varieties in serving it; one can chose to enjoy it in a plastic cup with sizes from small, medium and
large or with your own personal glass. Of course, the price comes in accordance with the size.

However, Wiki did not mention the essence of the popular dessert, the “haloing” part (mixing). It is in this delightful moment the bliss of the Halo-halo slowly comes into the senses. It is in this “mixing moment” Cebuano’s take pleasure in the stories of life: the triumph, tragedy and happiness of “dodong” and “inday”, and might as well add the complaints of the summer heat. It is on the act of mixing the fruits with other ingredients by your spoon while crushing the ice to melt is where the enjoyment occurs. After the mixing part comes the relieving and refreshing sweet tropical taste that seemingly takes one off to another cool world beyond the ailing and hot atmosphere of the earth.

Halo-halo does not only reflect as dessert favorite in the Philippines, the term also extend to some other “Pinoy” (Filipino slang of Filipino citizen) lifestyles.

The “UKAY-UKAY” for example, one can grapple with the mixed varieties of clothes; the “BOODLE FIGHT”, where all the participant enjoys the same mixed meal of rice, sinugba’ng baboy, hotdog, buwad (dried fish), topped with the steamy soup of ‘mongos na tinuno-an” (mung beans with coconut milk) or “mongos kinamonggayan” (mung bean soup with malunggay).

Halo-halo also comes in politics. Mixed issues of corruption and personal attacks are being thrown by contending candidates. Political parties are not spared. They included in their slate a mixture of candidates identified from other political parties (those whom they call political butterflies) and those from the ruling party.

More varieties of lifestyle come in a “Halo-halo” way. In election season for example, candidates mount a variety of approaches to woo voters. They engaged a mixture of “pakulo” that starts from giving shirts, flyers, ballers and other freebies up to giving rice and sponsoring a “diskoral” (Cebuano slang for discos) in towns. Amid the boiling heat of summer, one may think if it’s possible for politicians to sponsor rain and cool weather.

With the brewing heat of election season and Cebu’s humidity, one may find relief in taking refuge under a cool fine tree and take a refreshingly sweet Halo-halo.