Are you fiending for a sweet treat, but so over/bored with the recent explosion of ice cream and cupcake options? I present to you halo-halo, the sweet and cold and crunchy and chewy and melty and perfect Filipino dessert (or questionably nutritious dinner substitute).
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From the Tagalog word for mix, halo-halo’s possible ingredient permutations are endless, but the dish I revered last night at Kawali Grill (AC!) comprised coconut gel, sugar palm, jackfruit, banana, tapioca pearls, milk, sugar, and shaved ice, topped with ice cream and leche flan. The near-glowing bowl arrives at your table frosty and bright, each ingredient popping with neon glory. Savor the sight for a moment before mixing aggressively for proper taste distribution. While fleeting, the joy instilled with each drippy, now uniformly purple spoonful builds a cooling fortress against stultifying heat. If you go alone, bring along headphones and tunes, ideally these guys, to distract you from the sonic booms overhead.

Get yours here:

Columbia City: Kawali Grill
Beacon Hill: Inay’s Pan Pacific Restaurant and Kusina Filipina
U-District: Inay’s Manilla Grill

Also of note, this bowl is particularly satisfying as a follow-up to a bowl of a different sort.

Pic by Zeetz Jones.