Comments on: Homemade “Halo-Halo” a la Marketman

By: t2marc

t2marc — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:35:38 +0000

i love the halo halo in DJC, tiwi, albay . . it’s the best halo halo in bicol

By: adrian

adrian — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:30:06 +0000

try freezing coconut water then grinding/blending it until it is realllllly smooth??? well anyway point is, try substituting the ice made with water to ice made with coconut water :)

By: albert

albert — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:04:59 +0000

Singapore’s ice kachang looks suspiciously like halo-halo, but I much prefer halo-halo.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:54:39 +0000

I also love the sweet-sour taste of minatamis na pinya. There was even one summer where I didn’t get a chance to eat halo-halo. Yep, one whole summer. The season where people dive in to beaches and drink a load of really refreshing palamig. I was like, why the heck did I not eat even a single halo-halo? What a shame! BTW, I’m new here and guess what? This post was the first I read. And I say, I like your blog. Oh, I saw you featured in Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho. :)

By: betty q.

betty q. — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 04:15:33 +0000

On the other hand, MM..plantains hold their shape well. I just don’t go for the burro type of saba here…to me they are tasteless. What I do though is make sure the plantains are really, really ripe almost blackish….then I boil them first though before adding caramel orbrown sugar syrup. Of course, nothing beats our saba but at 8 bananas for $10?!? at the Pinoy stores, very ripe plantains will do!

By: Marketman

Marketman — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:05:46 +0000

APM, from what I understand, halo-halo may hark back to a few years BEFORE the Japanese occupation, when a few “soda bars” were opened by Japanese nationals here ostensibly to do business, but were apparently already early planted “spies” for the motherland… if that is true, it’s one notch cooler don’t you think? But yes, the Japanese are to thank for the iced desserts… though we were brining back ice in big blocks from the Americas before WWII, which is equally fascinating for me… weeks of travel on giant freighters and the ice blocks still survived!

Plantains seem to be a reasonable substitute for fried bananas, but I haven’t tried them in “minatamis” form where I suspect they would get too mushy and fall apart… But I don’t know that for sure…

By: APM

APM — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:41:33 +0000

Hi Marketman,

Halo halo is probably the only contribution of the Japanese occupation to Philippine cuisine. You will note that most countries that were occupied by Japan have similar shaved ice desserts. While the original dessert probably was some form of beans in syrup on shaved ice, the different variants of Halo halo are examples of Filipinos taking something foreign and making it into something distinctly Filipino.

By: Quinny A

Quinny A — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:19:03 +0000

can you really use ‘plantains’ as a substitute for ‘saba’?wala kasi nyan dito sa states,tapos ang hirap din hanapin yung perfect mix ng halohalo na nasa bote na mismo!pls. help,i really really miss eating halohalo….maybe i can make my own from scratch!thanks!

By: Amee

Amee — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:21:34 +0000

Man, now I’m craving halo halo and it’s nearly 3 a.m. where I am.

By: tonceq

tonceq — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:36:12 +0000

I LOOOOVE HALO-HALO! but like you MM, i prefer a halo-halo of less and choice ingredients… For example, i usually prefer a halo-halo without the beans (varies from kidney beans or garbanzos i believe) but besides that all other ingredients are welcome!

haha, ang tapang mo naman MM, eating Halo-halo in the midst of the still cold weather! i can’t even take a bath without bracing myself before the first splash of cold water! :)