Thread by @GuyEmersonMount

I decided to use the phrase 'halo-halo' in my chapter on Black food culture & citizenship in the Philippines. It literally means 'mix-mix' (which is how I use it) but it's also the name for an AMAZING desert in the Philippines I'm now obsessively tracing historically. #halohalo

Halo-halo appears to have its origins in the Heian period of classical Japan circa 900. Imperial kings would have ice stored in the winter and shaved for them during the summer. It was called a kakigōri (shaved ice) and eventually evolved into a shirokuma (polar bear).

The kakigōri variety is made with shaved ice, condensed milk, sweet azuki beans, and various other fruits and sweeteners. A version seems to have arrived in the Philippines courtesy of Japanese immigrants prior to WWII. They riffed on it and 'invented' the halo-halo.

Present day Filipino versions vary widely by region but most contain these original ingredients as well as other local ingredients such as koang (sugar palm fruit), leche (a Filipino version of a Spanish flan which has its own history dating back to ancient Rome)...

pinipig (toasted rice), tapioca balls, nata de coco (coconut gel), and an ice cream made with the indigenous ube (purple yam). The dish is served in a tall glass or bowl and then mixed up giving way to its name ‘mix-mix’ or halo-halo.

And to answer your next question, dear reader, yes I've had one (or more likely 10) while in the Philippines and, yes, they are delicious. If you have a Filipino restaurant in your area, they probably serve it.

A Jollibee (Filipino chain) opened in Chicago right before I left. jollibeeusa.com/locations/

Here's a newspaper article from renowned Filipino historian Ambeth R. Ocampo that details much of this history (and started all my trouble). opinion.inquirer.net/35790/japanese…

#TheBottomlessFootnote