Tago's halo-halo of old

It was like chewing a broken glass without the blood! That’s how I remember eating halo-halo as a kid.

The halo-halo of my youth was "glassy". It may be wanting in milk and had fewer ingredients like black beans, sweetened ripe bananas, and cubed gelatin in ROYGVIB, but to this date, no Digman, no Razon’s and no Chowking halo-halo could ever replace it in my book. Guess that’s the way with comfort food.

In the 70s, Tago had only one halo-halo parlor. Owned by the Elizaldes, it was on the same spot where Alondoy now sells pudding. Inside the estante perched on a table were tall plastic glasses that tapered dangerously near the base. It was hard to miss those classic opaque glasses just as it was hard to control the craving from running amok. And when this happened, I had my bag of tricks ready to make Mama and Papa shell out some coins for my cold addiction.

At the Elizalde snack bar I would sit waiting. By the door that opened to the kitchen stood the iron ice scraper that Imelda Castillo operated. Silver and tarnished, it was about two feet and a-half tall with a wheel that if turned would pin down tightly the block of ice, the better to scrape it against a blade of sharp steel. Underneath, a bowl waited for shavings to fall.

Imelda would then get from the estante one tall glass that carried some colorful ingredients, and knowing it was me who was her customer, she would pack it with ice and press down, repeating the process many times until she created a perfect mound and the glass was ready to break. After pouring milk from a measuring cup into the glass, she would serve the halo-halo along with the sugar.

Because there was no topping then--no scoop of ice cream, no sliver of leche flan--- I would look at the halo-halo mound for a while, amused that the milk had created acne scars on it. Then like a surgeon careful to do an incision, I would work on my halo-halo using the slim and elegant spoon, ensuring not to make the mixture spill over.

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Question: Why haven’t we halo-halo addicts filed a protest to not fill the glass to the brim, making it hard to maneuver? Isn’t it easier to make the glass half or three-fourths full, then we just scoop some ice shavings on a bowl and add them to our glass?

Answer: Addicts are called addicts because they can’t think straight especially when they're "high". Ergo, they can't complain.

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What I loved about the halo-halo of old was that it had “shards” of ice and I liked the feel and sound of them crashing between my teeth. I don’t like my halo-halo to have fine ice shavings (Razon’s is an exception) because that’s a shake, not a halo-halo. And I don’t want my halo-halo to have so much ingredients however eclectic because that’s a fruit salad, not a halo-halo. I don’t want the ingredients to get in the way of ice fusing with milk.

Now back to Imelda and her halo-halo.

Because it had so much ice than usual, my halo-halo was thin on milk. But it didn’t matter because Imelda made sure I had unli sugar. And when a group of customers entered just when I was almost done with my halo-halo, that was when I got lucky. In which case I would take my time finishing my halo-halo because I was certain that Imelda would give me the excess ice shavings. Never mind if at this time, my halo-halo would taste no better than an iced water.

Oh, how I miss that experience!