Shaved ice and evaporated milk over layers of sweet beans, fruit and jellies, crowned with ube, leche flan and ice cream.
What makes it halo-halo
Finely shaved ice and evaporated milk.
Sweet beans, jackfruit, sweetened plantain, nata de coco and jellies underneath.
Ube halaya, leche flan and often ice cream on top, with crisp pinipig.
Where it comes from
The name means mix-mix, which is what you do before eating. It's often traced to Japanese immigrants who sold shaved ice with sweetened beans in the years before the Second World War; Filipino cooks kept adding things until it became its own.
It's the summer dessert, sold everywhere from street stalls to fast-food chains, and every stall layers it differently.
How it varies
Pampanga halo-halo
A simpler kind, with just a few ingredients — beans, pastillas, banana — and very fine ice.