Saturday, April 2, 2016

How To Beat the Heat!

 
Oh Summer, there are lots of reasons why I love you and anticipate for your arrival all year round. But you know what, I hate you for making me sweat buckets.
So what is my way of coping up with this lakas-maka haggard situation? I refresh myself by eating some ice cold dessert instead since I cannot bathe with ice anyways, no matter how I am tempted to haha!
We, Filipinos have our very own sweet thirst-quencher called Halo-Halo. It’s made up of layers of crushed ice and special ingredients like sweetened banana slices, red and yellow beans, nata de coco (my favourite by the way), and jellies. Then topped with these delightful stuffs like ube jam, leche flan, and sweetened langka and poured with creamy milk to complete the heavenly concoction. The dessert is brimming with ingredients because the more, the merrier. It also got its name because of how it is presented, Halo-Halo means mixed in English.
          Many sells the said dessert especially during this hot season. They just pop out anywhere, thank goodness! But if you want not just an ordinary one, in my own opinion you should search for the following. First is with the ice, you would want the finest of them all of course. Fine ice makes your eating experience more enjoyable since you won’t need to bite the chunks of ice anymore. Next is the ingredients, some offers a lessened number of ingredients but boasts of its flavour. So whatever floats your boat with this one. Lastly is the milk used, the creamier and sweeter the better.
I find myself being lured to this little café in Congessional Avenue, Dasmarinas, Cavite. They offer Halo-Halo and other food as well. Ben’s Halo-Halo’s interior is so kawaii! I can’t help but feel like I am in a doll house with its pastel colors and wooden themed place adorned with chic and cute thingamajigs. It looks very clean, relaxing, and homey.

 
The staffs are accommodating and friendly too. Though the only downside for me is that they don’t have a WiFi service when actually they are near a university. Plus brownie points from students if they have one since most of their customers are them.
As for the menu, they serve sandwiches and rice meals. I find their Burghetti (Spaghetti presented like Burger) interesting too but I just took my lunch so a dessert is more welcomed then.
Their Ben’s Special Halo-Halo is the one I tried though they have an exotic option of Winter Halo-Halo which has a kick of spice from the red chilis. Weird, eh? Well not for the adventurous foodies out there. Some said it is still yummy and it is perfect for cold rainy days to warm you up when you are craving for some Halo-Halo.  I’m not the brave one when it comes to spicy food so I’ll have my original sweet one, please.

 
The price of the halo-Halo is 70 pesos, quite pricey if you would ask me. If their target consumers are students then they should have a more affordable price. As for the taste, nothing special as it lacks sweetness for me but sugar is available anyways. What got me is its fine ice but aside from that, there is no impressive from it considering it is the star of their shop. I would even suggest they add a scoop of ice cream or some more toppings to make it more special and to give justice to its price.




But then, I will forgive them for their IG-worthy café.  I would like to go back too to try their other offerings and maybe, just maybe the spicy Halo-Halo also. Oh let’s not forget the Burghetti!

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