Razon's Halo-halo and Pancit Luglug

It's really hot here in the big city when most people head out to the beaches scattered all over this sun-drenched archipelago.

Being stuck here in Manila and looking for a different kind of high, I looked for a branch of Razons at Robinsons Galleria foodcourt that I later found out has a rather long queue (right photo furtively taken with my phone cam)attesting to the popularity of this ice concoction from Guagua, Pampanga. Other branches I know are SM Megamall Foodcourt, SM Mall of Asia (MOA) and the Shell complex on NLEX southbound.

Halo-halo is a concoction of shaved ice, milk, sugar and various other sweet ingredients e.g. beans, purple yam, nata de coco, kaong (sugar palm) et al mixed together and sometimes topped with ice cream. The name itself literally means mix-mix in the vernacular.

For a bit of trivia, halo-halo is not an original Filipino invention but was introduced by the Japanese and also influenced by the Chinese. Many people from the Land of the Rising Sun, settled in Mindanao particularly in Davao that’s why many residents there have Japanese-sounding names. The Japanese were also the ones who built the roads of Baguio particularly Kennon road where many Nihonjin migrant workers died during construction of that torturous road leading to the summer capital.



Razon's version of the Filipino cooler is a simple one with only three main ingredients: macapuno (a sweet variety of coconut), sun-ripened handpicked saba (a certain variety of banana) and topped with syrupy, saccharine leche flan (steamed milk custard with caramel glaze) added together with finely-shaved ice, milk and a dash of dayap (lime) to complete the recipe.
The halo-halo this time is paired with dinuguan (pork blood stew. hey, even the british have black pudding, the germans with their blutwurst and Americans with blood sausage, so Filipinos are not the only ones guilty of breaking the kosher laws), puto (Filipino rice cake) and pancit luglug.



The pancit luglug, a close cousin of the palabok, is a common Pinoy comfort food made from round rice noodles smothered with special sauce, topped with boiled eggs and ground chicharon (an "evil" cholesterol-rich Pinoy food made of deep-fried pork fat that you may opt to avoid for those health-conscious. The Chicharon is what made foreigners think Philippine food is unhealthy, rather generalizing, isn't it?) and sprinkled with calamansi (Philippine lemon) for added zest.

Razon's halo-halo, sinfully sweet and delectably creamy that you can enjoy without having to make a beeline to Pampanga to enjoy, together with dinuguan, puto and pancit luglug make a hearty meal

I always love the halo-halo of my hometown for its creamyness but Razon's halo-halo is a rare gem that makes the more visually-enticing Icebergs and Chowking's versions less gustatory appealing.


Razon's branches:

Robinsons Galleria foodcourt
SM Megamall foodcourt
Trinoma Food Choices
Alabang Town Center Food Court
Jupiter St. Makati
lastly, their original Guagua branch, of course!

wonder how much a razon's franchise is