Say hi to ‘halo-halo’, new Pinoy dessert in town
As the orders came and went, Jose Razon could’ve used another kitchen. Anfd an extra set of staff for good measure.
When he finally got that tiny window to take a break, he approached our table, placed his hands on it and sighed. “Grabe,” he blurted out — meaning the verb ‘grave,’ an expression of bewilderment — but with a gratifying smile. Joey, as he is affectionately called, was feeling the effects of manning the opening day of the Razon’s of Guagua restaurant in Karama.
And it’s obvious why: Filipinos, known for their brand-loyalty, trooped to the venue and savoured a taste they’ve obviously missed, being in the UAE. The crush was so huge Joey and Co exhausted a day’s supply of certain ingredients; good thing they had a back-up stash. “I never expected it to be this huge,” he said, while looking around the dining area to make sure everyone was being attended to.
The company joins the ranks of some other major Filipino brands that are now catering to kababayans’ tastebuds in the UAE — Chowking, Max’s, Barrio Fiesta and, of course, Jollibee, among them, with Gerry’s Grill next in line. But unlike the usual fare offered by the rest, Razon’s has a unique take on a popular dessert slash snack slash heat buster.
And we’re quite sure the decision of Joey and his sisters — Edwina, Salome, Socorro and Zenaida — to bring it to the UAE made not a few pinoys happy.
Where’s my ice cream?
Halo-halo — or, formally, haluhalo, according to the Commission on the Filipino Language — is a cold dessert similar to the subcontinent’s falooda, Japan’s
kakigori, Korea’s patbingsu and even India’s chuski. Shaved ice with flavouring, in simpler terms.
The term halo means ‘mix’ in Tagalog; you’ll soon find out why its name actually makes sense.
The standard concoction contains bits and slices of plantains (cooking banana), jackfruit, sweetened kidney beans (and other colourful beans), sweetened chickpeas, sweet potato,
gulaman (jellies made from seaweed), nata de coco (coconut gel), sago (tapioca balls), macapuno (coconut flesh), kaong (sugar palm fruit), crushed young rice (pinipig) and, sometimes, cheese. These are topped with a load of shaved ice before milk is poured along with a heap of sugar.
As if that is not enough, the ice is topped with a dose of ube (purple yam) and leche flan (creme caramel). Still unsatisfied? The coup de grace is a scoop (or scoops) of ice-cream.
Yum. You can just imagine how colourful it is. Go ahead and mix it up, take spoonfuls at a time and gulp it down like a shake when the ice melts. The cool treat — also a popular street food — is so mesmerising that American chef and globetrotting foodie Anthony Bourdain, during a visit in Manila, labelled it in a most ironic way.
“It makes no goddamn sense at all. I love it,” he said, adding that it was “oddly beautiful”.
However, Razon’s version of halo-halo is a bit unusual. Why? Because there are only three ingredients in it.
Joey chuckles as he recalls some customers who gave them a bit of a cold treatment (pun not intended) upon seeing their rather ‘colourless’ halohalo, expecting more goodies in it. That reaction came not only from other nationalities, but from a bunch of pinoys as well.
Where are the beans? Where’s the leche flan? Where’s the ube? WHERE’S THE ICE-CREAM?!
Joey and the Razons hail from Pampanga, a province about 70km north of Manila, widely considered the culinary capital of the Philippines.
He explains that the ‘secret’ behind this was simple: before the restaurant came into being, their grandmother, who started selling halo-halo and other snacks in the early 1970s in their garage at home, began experimenting with ingredients that would best complement each other.
After countless combos, the winning formula was discovered. Plantains, macapuno and leche flan. That’s it. Oh, and don’t forget the shaved ice and milk, of course.
Some have even theorised that the real secret is in the shaved ice — there could be something mixed in it — but Joey offers a simple explanation.
“It’s because the [shaved] ice is soft. When it’s mixed with milk it becomes creamy, just like ice cream,” he says.
He did point out though, that they use specific ice shavers in their restaurants, brought from the Philippines. He found some in the UAE that came close but it wasn’t exactly what they wanted. Is this a trade secret? Joey doesn’t think so. “It’s more about methodical cooking and proper ingredients.” Meanwhile, the mania spread primarily by word of mouth, with noted writer Doreen Fernandez even writing a full-length feature about it. And with guests as far as Manila starting to come over, it was a no-brainer that the brand would open its first shop in the Philippine capital — though this would only happen decades later in 2003.
Today, Razon’s has 74 branches in the country — which is what makes the Dubai store a gem, since it is the 75th outlet.
The Emirati Angle
Joey says that they initially looked to set up in the United States for the brand’s first overseas venture, but baulked at the process. Then one fine day, he recalls, came some unexpected news: some friends told them they were coming over with two Emirati businessmen who were looking for their first venture in the F&B industry — and they wanted a taste of Philippine cuisine.
As talks progressed, the siblings immediately realised they jived with the proposal of the Emiratis, not only because of the business opportunity and ease of doing business in the UAE, but also because of one other important factor.
“We related to them… because their attitude is down-to-earth,” Joey quips.
The icing on the cake — or, in this case, the leche flan on the halo-halo — is that the Emiratis gave the Razons a free hand in the business.
“Our partners said they won’t interfere… ‘operate it as if you were in Manila,’ so to speak,” Joey points out.
Which is why the Razons don’t have any plans to change their approach.
“We are a simple family business; nothing fancy about it, no top-down organisation,” Joey stresses.
Less can, indeed, be more.