Perfect Summer Dessert - Halo Halo

Now that summer is here, a perfect way to cool down is with a bowl of this colorful dessert. This is called Halo Halo, a popular Filipino dessert. It's an attractive dessert because of the medley of sweet ingredients such as shaved ice, milk, boiled sweet beans, assorted fruits, gelatin, yam, flan and sometimes topped with ice-cream.

How to make your own Halo Halo

Ingredients:
(The following are the common components of Halo Halo. You may choose only the ones that you like. You're free to create your own Halo Halo. You may also control the amount of ingredients per glass or bowl depending on your taste.)

• sweetened bananas, specifically saba (sliced into pieces)
  
• sweet potato (cut into cubes)
  
• purple yam (already prepared, often bought in small jars/containers)
• canned or sweetened jackfruit (cut into strips)
  
• nata de coco (preserved sweet coconut)
• macapuno
  
• gelatin (already prepared and cut into small cubes)
• tapioca (prepared and sweetened in sugar syrup)
• sweetened garbanzo beans
• sweetened red beans
• lechan flan
  
• rice crispies (pinipig)
• corn kernels
• ice cream (optional)
  
• sugar (amount added depends on one's taste)
  
• evaporated milk
• shaved ice
  
• ice-cream (optional)
  

Procedure:

• Halfway fill a tall glass or deep bowl with a tablespoon of each ingredient of your choice above. Then fill it with crushed ice. Top with ice cream, purple yam or leche flan (or bits of each). Then serve with milk and sugar.