I agree with most of MarMan’s original review but I also agree with the authors’ claim that most Filipino foods are, in fact, fusion. Like a live language, it should continue evolving through generations.

Personally, I prefer Filipino food prepared with authentic ingredients, taste and color that I am used to in the islands - the kakanin from the public palengke of San Antonio, Zambales to Tatoy’s sinigang na isda in Iloilo - but I really have no problem trying creative (and better) interpretations to it like the book’s purple-colored fresh lumpia wrapper, pan de sal and other embellished favorites (for aesthetic considerations maybe?). What is a real turn off to me is bastardizing popular recipes like the lament of a fellow Sacramentan: kare-kare using pig’s feet, chicken adobo literally swimming in very thin, dark sauce, pork sinigang using so-so cut of meat. What are these proprietors thinking?

Anyway, in 2005 an all-American ice cream shop fell on our lap and quickly thought of creating a complementary market to turn the financials around. Adding Halo-Halo to the menu - you guessed it – and with the heavy concentration of Pinoys in the area, voila! But first, my wife Angelita and I meticulously sampled all the halo-halos offered by both local and Manila-based restaurants in town. We turned out to be very unhappy customers concluding that scrimping food cost and “mababaw ang kaligayahan nila” (something is better than nothing for these hungry folks) seems to be the operators’ business mission statements . One name-brand bakery even substituted mango cake topping to the usual ice cream! So, - apologies for a little commercial break here - we came up with our upscale Tropical Treats 24-oz. “isang dosenang sangkap, isang dosenang sarap” Halo-Halo at an even $5 and the rest is history. Please read http://www.sacbee.com/104/story/313467.html

Humbly, the lessons we learned so far (with universal food industry application and not just for Pinoy restaurateurs):

1. Offer the best and closest to the original recipe (Interestingly, a rival shop’s chef - with his 2-page resume – even came to us and casually informed us that their company insists on tweaking their halo-halo and other menu items to cater to “American taste”. Huh?)
2. Know by heart your entrees, each main ingredient, their origins and history: A competent, even a self-schooled cook vs. a “maski-paps” (whatever) self-anointed chef can survive this highly competitive industry, not to mention there-will-be-blood food critics.
3. Make entrees simple, letting the predominant ingredient(s) stand out: Baboy should taste like baboy, nothing less.
4. Present entrees knowing that everyone eats first with their sense of sight. Imagine serving dinuguan in a black tureen!
5. Concede that you can never beat their mothers’ or cooks’ cooking and there will be peace on earth.
6. Give credit when it’s due. My wife and I tried San Bruno’s Ihaw-Ihaw and we recommend it to friends who crave for close-to-home cooking. And yes, they do serve halo-halo.

Marami pong salamat!

Sal Marcellana
HaloHaloUSA@gmail.com