My husband craves for Halo-Halo

The whole Philippine Islands is experiencing too much heat this past few days.  Here in Batangas City, expect a higher temperature having it located in a coastal area.  Cold beverages is really refreshing during this scorching heat of the sun.  With the temperature my children would always ask me to let them turn on the air conditioning unit in our office.  I wouldn't allow them for the whole day practically because we can't afford to pay the electric bill having it turned on for longer period of hours.

Since summer has started, pakner4lyf keeps saying that he wants eat Halo-Halo in San Juan, Batangas.  It's unusual to hear men craving for food.  I don't know if you'll agree with me.  Because of his craving we went to his home town to have the San Juan's Halo-Halo experience.

What's with Halo-Halo?  From the name itself, it is a mixture of sweet goodness (banana, camote, ube, tapioca, beans, jello, leche flan, langka, rice krispies) topped with crushed ice and poured with milk.  Different restaurants may top it with ice cream or add some more ingredients to make their presentation unique.

When I first visited San Juan's municipal market, I was amazed to see market stalls there that sells Halo-Halo only.  Being a store owner, I couldn't help but think that these stores can continually operate selling only Halo-Halo all year round!  They sure have a lot of customers to have remain in the business for years.

Now there are two (used to have five before) Halo-Halo stores competing in San Juan's Market. Glo Special Halo-Halo and Macaraig Halo Halo Special.  We dine at Glo Special Halo-Halo it was my sister-in-law's suggestion.  Pakner4lyf, noticed another stall at one side.  He told me that Macaraig's was famous since then. This had lead me to make a comparison of the two stores.

P10.00 

P 25.00

Both of the storess have the same prices.  The cheapest is P10.00 which is the smallest size.  The regular is priced at P20.00 (not so sure with this) and P25.00 for special.  They have cheapest Halo-Halo but is still delicious!  This is one of the reasons why pakner4lyf loves to have Halo-Halo here.

Macaraig's Counter

Since the market is newly constructed, the stores still look new.  Overall, both looks clean and neat. Macaraig has a bigger stall and dining area and with a television set for customers.  This could be an implication that they have a lot more customers than Glo.  I love the ambiance of Glo, having the colorful wall and native capiz windows as decors.  Since the place has lesser customer, it makes the place more private.  I also noticed that Glo's counter is more well organized and neat compared with the other store.  Sister-in-law commented that she loved to have her Halo-Halo here in Glo because of these reasons.

Glo's Counter

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What about the taste?  We have tasted Glo's Halo-Halo first because it is where we dine.  What makes their Halo-Halo special is the addition of sweetened langka (jack fruit).  I love langka in Halo-Halo because of the flavor it adds, while some would hate langka because of the smell.  If you wouldn't like langka in your Halo-Halo it's better to have it in Macaraig. Aside from the regular ingredients of the Halo-Halo they are adding nata de coco and rice crispies - flattened ones (pinipig) to make their Halo-Halo special.  Our little boy SJ enjoyed and loved eating Halo-Halo.  That was his first time to have it tasted.

We had a take out of Halo-Halo from Macaraig to make the comparison of the taste.  We needed to pay an extra charge of P5.00 for the take out container.  There was a slight difference of the taste because of the ingredients added that I have mentioned earlier.  I didn't like foods that taste too sweet. This one thing matters, that Macaraig's puts a lot of sugar.  Better to remind them not to put too much sugar or prefer to not let them put sugar in it because all ingredients were already sweetened.  Try adding the sugar once it is all mixed up.

I wish that they can add a scoop of ice cream in their Halo-Halo to have its taste a way more delicious.  Or I would be bringing an ice cream the next time we visit San Juan for another Halo-Halo.

What do you like to have in your Halo-Halo?  Where do you want to have it?