Stay, Stray, Play and Feast: Chow King Halo Halo :The Philippines’ “Pambansang Halo- Halo” (Naga City Halo- Halo Summer Series 2)

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Chow King Halo Halo :The Philippines’ “Pambansang Halo- Halo” (Naga City Halo- Halo Summer Series 2)

It’s summer time and it’s halo-halo time. Stay, Stray Play and Feast is running a series of food review on where to find the best halo- halo in Naga City. While we have gotten used to the traditional preparations of stuffing so many sweetened ingredients in a bowl of ice, as we always believe that the more the merrier, but the halo- halo loses its distinctive taste this way. It is a culinary fact that in preparing any dish- the lesser, the better and making the best halo- halo is not an exemption.

Chow King Halo Halo
The Philippines’ “Pambansang Halo- Halo”
(Naga City Halo- Halo Summer Series 3)

Of all the halo- halo preparations in the Philippines, the classic
Chowking Halo-Halo Super Sangkap is one of my favorites.

It passed my very first criteria of having a coarsely
ground and crunchy ice that one could still chew
the bits and pieces of crushed ice neutralizing the
otherwise intolerably and horribly sweet concoction.

One turn off though is still the flavor overload- as just like
any traditional halo- halo versions , Chowking still stuffed
it with so many of sweet ingredients from top to bottom..

Because of this, it does not have any distinctive taste since
having so many dissimilar things in a single bowl makes
it impossible to tell apart one ingredient from the others.

Still, for the coarse crushed ice alone, I consider this
the best tasting traditional halo- halo in Naga City.

The good thing is, Chowking came out with a better,
and tastier, although, a toned down version of their
popular halo- halo. The new Milky White Halo- Halo.

This time they got it right. It had the right sweetness,
the coarse crushed ice that is still crunchy to the bite,
and a perfect neutralizer to the halo halo’s sweetness.

It also had right amount ingredients of leche flan,
sweet bananas and tapioca, topped with a scoop
of vanilla ice cream, resulting to a creamy, milky
ice crunchy delicious refreshing summer treat.

With hundreds of branches all over the country, highly
accessible to everyone, it makes Chowking Halo- Halo
the country’s unofficial ‘Pambansang Halo- Halo’.