Food - Drink
Anthony Bourdain Loved One Filipino Dessert In Particular
By HOPE NGO
On Season One of “Parts Unknown,” Anthony Bourdain visited a Jollibee in L.A, where chef Roy Choi introduced him to the chain's version of the colorful frozen dessert, halo-halo.
Halo-halo, which is Tagalog for “mix-mix,” can be made with sweet beans, gulaman (an Asian gelatin produced from seaweed), corn, kaon (sweet palm fruit), and sweetened banana.
This dessert can also have jackfruit, pineapple, and sweetened coconut, topped with shaved ice, ube (purple yam) ice cream, and slabs of creamy flan, all bathed in evaporated milk.
Halo-halo fascinated Bourdain because its ingredients seemed random, as he said, “It makes no god****ed sense at all.” Yet, he waxed poetic about halo-halo on “Parts Unknown.”
He said, “Dig deep and you hit delicious stratas of red beans, white beans, and chickpeas, cubes of red and green Jell-O, young white coconut, shaved ice, flan. [...] I love it.”
Unlike many of the Philippines' best-loved dishes, halo-halo doesn't have its roots in Spain, Mexico, or the galleon trade, but in Japan.
The iconic dessert is believed to have been inspired by kakigori, a traditional Japanese shaved ice dessert that includes fruit syrup, condensed milk, or green tea.