Ube halaya is a jam — grated purple yam cooked slowly with coconut milk, condensed milk, butter, and sugar, stirred continuously over low heat until the mixture thickens into a dense, smooth, deeply violet paste that holds its shape when scooped. The color is extraordinary — not the pale lavender of taro or the artificial […]

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Halo-halo is a bowl of shaved ice buried under an accumulation of sweetened things — red beans, white beans, chickpeas, coconut gel, palm fruit, sweetened banana, jackfruit, pinipig, grass jelly, colorful gulaman cubes — with evaporated or condensed milk poured over the ice and, on top of everything, a scoop of ube halaya, a slice […]

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