Halo halo
In the hands of a gifted chef, a dish can operate rather like an object lesson, the pattern of sauce and arrangement of ingredients demonstrating her relationship to a cuisine, a memory, a culture. Consider Margarita Manzke’s halo halo, a dish she grew up eating as a kid in the Philippines, learned long ago to make herself and now has translated to both of her Los Angeles restaurants — a little Filipino food stall and an ambitious French bistro.
Halo halo — “mix mix” in Tagalog — is a deeply emblematic dish, sold on street corners in the Philippines and lately in restaurants all over America as part of the recent renaissance of Filipino cuisine. It is a homey dish, a childhood dish, the Southeast Asian version of our hot fudge sundae or banana split — a hodgepodge assembly of ice cream and crushed ice, gelée and fruit, tapioca and crispy rice that forms a colorful and deeply craveable dessert. It’s also just a little weird, which may be part of its appeal.
“It’s a fun dessert,” said Manzke recently at République, the Hancock Park bistro she owns and operates with her husband, chef Walter Manzke. “But if you didn’t grow up eating it, you’d be like, What? What were they thinking? It’s like whatever’s in the refrigerator.”
At Sari Sari Store, the Filipino food counter the Manzkes opened in July in the middle of downtown L.A.’s century-old food court Grand Central Market, the halo halo comes in a 12-ounce plastic cup, with a domed lid and a plastic spoon and straw if you’re taking it to-go. It’s the kind of thing you’d find at a county fair or soda shop: crispy rice like sprinkles on a scoop of ice cream atop a layer of watermelon ice, pink as bubblegum, the cubes of diced fruit and gelée falling into a layer of old-fashioned tapioca.
Order the same dessert at République and you get a dish built from exactly the same components, but one that looks like it emerged from the copper doors of a haute cuisine pastry kitchen. A collage of colors and shapes fills an elegant Champagne coupe like a work of abstract art, crowned with a perfect quenelle of ice cream and a confetti of caramelized rice.
“It’s a very traditional dessert,” said Manzke, “but we didn’t want to make it too traditional; we wanted our own spin on it.” So instead of using ube ice cream (“ube is very predictable”), the distinctive purple made from yams that is in most versions of halo halo, Manzke uses either coconut or pandan ice cream. She has the tapioca, rich and silky with coconut milk, stand in for the evaporated milk that is in most renditions of the dish. And the beans — often a combination of mung beans, red beans and chickpeas — are noticeably absent.
“Growing up, I liked halo halo, but I never liked some of the things that went into it,” said Manzke, a native of Manila who came to the U.S. in her 20s. “I never liked the beans.” If not beans, then flan, lots of it, smooth as silk and rich with caramel, made from a recipe Manzke got from her sister. “I’m a sucker for anything flan.”
As Manzke arranged the components of the dish at République, the gorgeous restaurant that occupies a legendary space in Los Angeles — before it was République, it was the bell-tower-topped restaurant Campanile, and before that it was a brick edifice built by Charlie Chaplin for his child bride — it was easy to forget halo halo’s street food origins.
Instead the dish seemed like a master class in pastry skills — a class Manzke would be highly qualified to teach. A Culinary Institute of America graduate, she’s an alum of such notable L.A. white-tablecloth restaurants as Patina, Bastide and Mélisse, and earlier this year was a James Beard nominee for Outstanding Pastry Chef.
On the table, the halo halo ingredients looked like a plated dessert diagram: frozen component, base, garnish, sauce, crunchy bits. And the chef’s beloved flan? The squares of custard could easily have been served alone, an example of lovely satin geometry. As she built the dish, it became a perfect equation of color and texture, contrast and temperature.
“What I like about it is that you can change it,” said the mother of two, her long, black hair pulled back in a ponytail that made her look about half her 43 years. “Kumquats, peaches, berries — in the winter we put persimmons in it — whatever’s in season. Just really whatever your heart desires.” She says she likes the nata de coco, the coconut jelly used in the Philippines, but that so much of the halo halo ingredients in restaurants there “come out of a jar.”
Manzke’s halo halo comes not from any jar, of course, but from the intersection of farmers market and pastry kitchen, of nostalgia and invention. It is a beautiful dish, a jigsaw of simplicity and artifice. And duplicating it at home is both an homage to a culture and an exercise in technique. It can also be a kind of hodgepodge in its own right, as you can make all or only some of the components, and assemble them as you please. Just please don’t forget the flan.
Flan
Heat the oven to 300 degrees.
Make the caramel: Put 2 cups of sugar in a saucepan along with the corn syrup and enough water to give the sugar a “wet sand” consistency. Cook the sugar over high heat until melted and the sugar turns a rich amber color. Remove from heat and pour the caramel into a 9-inch by 13-inch pan, tilting until the sugar coats the bottom of the pan evenly. Set aside until the caramel is cooled and set.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, blend together the condensed milk, evaporated milk, remaining ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, yolks and eggs, and lime juice. Pour the mixture over the set caramel.
Place the mixture in a larger roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with enough hot water to come up the sides of the flan pan by two-thirds. Carefully place the roasting pan in the oven.
Bake until the flan is set (it will jiggle when tapped), about 1 hour. Remove the flan pan from the roasting pan and cool the flan on a cooling rack, then refrigerate overnight.
Punch out small flan rounds using a greased round cookie cutter to use in the final recipe. This makes about 1 dozen 3-inch rounds, and 2 dozen 2-inch rounds.
Candied kumquats
Cut the kumquats crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick rounds, removing any seeds from the slices.
Blanch the kumquats three times: Place the slices in a small pot, cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water boils, strain and repeat.
After the third blanch, place the kumquats back in the pot with the sugar and ¾ cup water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a fast simmer and continue cooking until the slices are translucent and the liquid becomes a thin syrup. Remove from heat and cool. Refrigerate the kumquats, in their syrup, until needed.
Passion fruit gelée
Spray an 8-inch square baking pan or dish with baking spray and line with plastic wrap. Meanwhile, bloom the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cool water until softened.
Sweeten the passion fruit juice with sugar to taste, adding water if needed to balance the desired flavor. Warm the juice in a small pan over medium heat. Remove the gelatin sheets from the cool water, ringing out any excess water, and stir into the passion fruit juice until dissolved.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Cut the gelée into 1/4- to 1/2-inch squares.
Coconut gelée
Spray an 8-inch square baking pan or dish with baking spray and line with plastic wrap. Meanwhile, bloom the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cool water until softened.
Sweeten the coconut water to taste, adding water if needed to balance the desired flavor. Warm the water in a small pan over medium heat. Remove the gelatin sheets from the cool water, ringing out any excess water, and stir into the passion fruit juice until dissolved.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Cut the gelée into 1/4- to 1/2-inch squares.
Pineapple granita
Sweeten the pineapple juice with sugar to taste, whisking until all of the sugar is dissolved. Place the juice in a baking dish and freeze until completely frozen. To serve, scrape the frozen juice using a fork to create the granita.
Watermelon granita
Peel and cut the watermelon into chunks. Blend the watermelon to a purée, sweetening as desired with sugar. Strain the purée and place in a baking dish, freezing until completely frozen. To serve, scrape the frozen juice using a fork to create the granita.
Pandan icea cream
In a small, heavy pot, combine the milk, cream, pandan leaves and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining ½ cup sugar. Pour a cup or so of the hot milk mixture in with the eggs, whisking to temper them. Whisk the tempered eggs in with the milk mixture to form the ice cream base.
Gently heat the ice cream base, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken and a thermometer inserted reaches 170 degrees. Remove from heat and immediately strain into a bowl set over a larger bowl of ice water. Discard the pandan leaves and any solids and stir the ice cream base over the ice bath until the base is completely cooled.
Place the base in an ice cream maker and spin according to the manufacturer’s instructions. This makes a generous quart of ice cream. Cover and freeze until needed.
Coconut tapioca
Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Stir in the tapioca pearls and boil, stirring constantly, until the tapioca pearls begin to rise to the surface. Reduce the heat and simmer the tapioca, stirring frequently, until the pearls are translucent, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain, rinsing the tapioca well under cold running water.
In a large bowl, combine the coconut milk and sugar, whisking until the sugar is dissolved. Stir the tapioca pearls in with the coconut milk. Cover and refrigerate until needed. As the mixture sits, the coconut milk will continue to soak into the tapioca, causing the mixture to thicken; if needed, thin with additional coconut milk. This makes about 6 cups coconut tapioca.
Caramelized crisp rice
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup over high heat. Cook until the sugar is melted, bubbling vigorously, and just begins to take on a faint touch of yellow color. Stir in the cereal and continue cooking, stirring constantly (be careful that the sugar does not burn on the bottom of the pan), until the cereal is coated with sugar and caramelizes to a golden amber color. Remove from heat and spread the cereal in a thin layer on a greased sheet of parchment paper.
Halo halo assembly
For each serving, in a shallow bowl, place a flan round followed by 2 to 3 pieces of each assorted fresh berry. Add 4 slices of candied kumquats, followed by 2 pieces each of the passion fruit and coconut gelée. Top with 1/3 cup granita and a quenelle of pandan ice cream, followed by ¼ cup of the coconut tapioca and topped with about 2 tablespoons of the caramelized rice. Serve immediately.
Get our Cooking newsletter.
Your roundup of inspiring recipes and kitchen tricks.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
