Tag: halo-halo

Flavors of NCR 2024 was a blast of delicacies, discoveries and fun

Flavors of NCR 2024 was a blast of delicacies, discoveries and fun

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Recently Muntinlupa City hosted the 2024 edition of the Flavors of NCR food festival at the Filinvest City Central Park in Alabang and I personally witnessed the formal opening ceremony which involved many high-level officials and special guests. A lot of people visited the food festival on April 19 and 20 which added to the credibility of Filinvest City Central Park as a suitable open-air venue for special events.

For the newcomers reading this, Flavors of NCR is a special event presented by the Association of Tourism Officers – NCR which collaborated with the City Government of Muntinlupa for this year’s event. It is a showcase of unique cuisine found in the sixteen cities and one municipality of the National Capital Region (NCR). The local government units (LGUs) that participated include: Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Manila, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig, Valenzuela, and the Municipality of Pateros.

Event launch

The ribbon cutting led by high officials that include Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano (3rd from left), Muntinlupa Mayor Ruffy Biazon (3rd from right) and Department of Tourism-NCR Regional Director Sharlene Zabala-Batin (2nd from left) to name a few.

The opening ceremony of Flavors of NCR 2024 was attended by Muntinlupa City Mayor Ruffy Biazon, Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, Department of Tourism-NCR Regional Director Sharlene Zabala-Batin, Association of Tourism Officers-NCR headed by Manila City Tourism chief Charlie Dungo, and Pasay City chief of staff Peter Eric Pardo. Also present were Muntinlupa Vice Mayor Temy Simundac and Muntinlupa City Council Raul Corro.

“We are delighted to host the Flavors of NCR,” Mayor Biazon stated during his welcome remarks to all the guests. “(We acknowledge) the presence of other cities here so that their products will be showcased and we are proud to have you here.”

Biazon stressed that hosting the Flavors of NCR opens up opportunities for Metro Manila’s LGUs and their respective food-and-beverage stakeholders access to the Calabarzon region composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon with a collective population of over sixteen million people.

It should be noted that the Alabang area of Muntinlupa is a popular destination for Calabarzon residents as well as those from nearby cities who enjoy shopping and recreational activities during the weekend. That being said, Flavors of NCR fits nicely with the weekend vibe at Filinvest City.

After the formal ribbon-cutting was done, Flavors of NCR 2024 officially opened and a lot of people and photographers followed Biazon and the guests visit the different food booths of each city.

Each LGU and their best

I visited and explored the designated areas (also referred to as “booths”) of each LGU during the food festival. Each area had a different style of interiors and layouts of food, drinks and other products being offered to visitors. There were also chairs and tables present for those who need to seat down and eat. Check out my raw YouTube videos plus pictures below…

Native delicacies on display for sale at the Las Piñas City booth.
Burger patties being cooked at the Mandaluyong City area.
Delicious halo-halo from Aling Consuelo Halo-Halo sa Ugbo. This was sold at P100 each.
Marikina City had four sellers that attracted customers during the food festival.
Drinks, dessert and other stuff offered to customers at the Las Piñas City booth.

Flavors of NCR was indeed a true showcase of what local businesses per LGU has to offer. Manila had halo-halo sold by Aling Consuelo Halo-Halo Sa Ugbo, Las Piñas City had Bea’s Home of Quality Kakanin and Other Native Delicacies selling native delights, Quezon City had Papa Diddi’s Handcrafted Ice Cream for those wanting something cold and sweet, Mandaluyong City had Ben’s Burjer for customers who love hot burgers, Marikina City had Mang Ding’s BBQ and Nanay Ipang’s Everlasting, and so on.

As expected, the variety of food and drinks were really great. Offered to customers were chicken, beef, pork, siomai, barbeque, puto, bibingka, pansit, siopao, fried chicken, roasted pig, pastries, cakes, halo-halo and ice cream to name some. There were also non-food products being sold such as bags and accessories in some booths.

The Muntinlupa City area.
Sea food and other food items being sold at the Parañaque City booth.
Fried chicken being prepared for customers.
The best of Muntinlupa City offered to customers.
Food and bags for sale inside the booth of Malabon City.

It was really nice to see these small businesses represent their locality and offered their best products to visitors at Filinvest City Central Park. Adding zest to the food festival were some performances by different bands from the cities of NCR. There also was a modern dance activity that drew in lots of visitors which added to the customers at the food festival.

Conclusion

The 2024 edition of Flavors of NCR at Filinvest City Central Park was indeed a nice showcase of what each LGU had to offer for those who love food and drinks. In addition, this festival really emphasized unity between the local governments of NCR and it also promoted local tourism. The festival also attracted some residents of Filinvest City’s residential towers (plus others from Ayala Alabang, Palms Pointe Village and other residential communities) and some employees (who worked at offices near the park) whose shifts ended.

In the perspective of tourism, this event really boosted Filinvest City Central Park’s status as a venue for special events or activities. To date, the said park continues to be an attraction for visitors and already it has been used by organizers of sports events and musical events.

This was taken during Saturday night.

The successful staging of Flavors of NCR could inspire food festival organizers to have their events held within Filinvest City in the future.

Let me end this post by asking you readers: Were you able to attend Flavors of NCR at the central park in Filinvest City? If you did, how was your experience? Do you wish to see another food festival to be held at Filinvest City Central Park soon?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at  @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

For more South Metro Manila community news and developments, come back here soon. Also say NO to fake news, NO to irresponsible journalism, NO to misinformation, NO to plagiarists, NO to reckless publishers and NO to sinister propaganda when it comes to news and developments. For South Metro Manila community developments, member engagements, commerce and other relevant updates, join the growing South Metro Manila Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/342183059992673

Gold Delight’s Coco Halo-Halo ice cream

Gold Delight’s Coco Halo-Halo ice cream

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Here in the Philippines, what is considered by many to be the most popular local dessert reflecting the Filipino culture is the Halo-halo. For the foreigners and newcomers reading this, the Halo-halo is the cold dessert composed of crushed ice, milk (condensed or evaporated) and a variety of ingredients such as purple yam (ube), nata de coco, leche flan slices, sweet beans, coconut strips, jelly orbs, gelatin portions, fruit slices and a scoop of ice cream.

In Tagalog (the major language here in the Philippines), halo means mix. Halo-halo then means mixture (rough translation – mix-mix) which is realized when a consumer mixes all the ingredients together. In this form, the consumer will experience a unique, sweetened taste with each serving by the spoon complete with different ingredients entering his or her mouth.

Now in line with this article’s topic, try to imagine halo-halo in the form of an ice cream! That’s right! There is such a thing and in certain points during my lifetime, I consumed ice cream designed to have the taste and ingredients of halo-halo! Such halo-halo flavored ice cream were temporarily offered by the different ice cream makers.

Here, I want to show you Gold Delight’s Coco Halo-halo ice cream which is now available in pints and half-gallons!

Gold Delight’s Coco Halo-Halo ice cream in half-gallon.
This is what the Coco Halo-halo ice cream looks like up close.
Coco Halo-halo in pint and in half-gallon. These were sold in Las Piñas City for P90 and P275 respectively.

So what can I say about the Coco Halo-halo ice cream? It is made with water, coconut milk, sugar, milk solids, red mongo beans, white beans, kaong, nata de coco, and jackfruit strips to name some. The ice cream itself is mildly sweet. Its taste is enhanced when you eat the ice cream with the frozen (but not hard) ingredients. While it is not as sweet as the standalone halo-halo dessert (note: which can be served sometimes with condensed milk by certain sellers), it still is delicious in my taste. It is also ideal during this hot summer season. As such, Gold Delight’s Coco Halo-halo ice cream is recommended.  

For more content about Gold Delight and Ice Cream House, check out my Coffee Crumble-Cocoflan article as well as my DIY Sundae Box article and the Pastilla de Langka article. If you are interested in ordering Gold Delight ice cream products and have them delivered to your household, call their mobile number 09190091543 or visit them at their official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/icecreamhouseph

The details regarding ordering such as how to pay, what form to fill up and how long it will take for orders to be delivered are available for viewing at the FB page.

For those of you living in or near Las Piñas City, there is a local seller of Gold Delight ice cream products and you can call them at mobile phone numbers 0915-4606505 or 0917-3646363.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me as well. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me at HavenorFantasy@twitter.com

For more South Metro Manila community news and developments, come back here soon. Also say NO to fake news, NO to irresponsible journalism, NO to misinformation, NO to plagiarists, NO to reckless publishers and NO to sinister propaganda when it comes to news and developments. For South Metro Manila community developments, member engagements, commerce and other relevant updates, join the growing South Metro Manila Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/342183059992673

My Observations: Ben’s Halo-Halo in BF Homes

My Observations: Ben’s Halo-Halo in BF Homes

carlocarrasco

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Laguna’s creamiest halo-halo is now in BF Homes!

For the newcomers reading this, Aguirre Avenue, the major road inside BF Homes subdivision in Parañaque City, is well known for being a major commercial stretch where people can find lots of restaurants, stores, coffee shops and the like.

Recently along the same road, the BF Homes branch of Ben’s Halo-Halo Ice Cream opened within the area of Phase 3 in the subdivision. It is located between Shakey’s and Starbucks Coffee at the same side. Just steps away from it, also from the same side, is Mini-Stop convenience store.

Already, Ben’s Halo-Halo has been attracting a lot of customers and their best-selling product is, unsurprisingly, their signature halo-halo. In recent times, actor Mark Anthony Fernandez (Miracle in Cell No. 7), had been visiting the BF Homes branch to take home halo-halo not once but many times already. Out of curiosity, I decided to pay a visit and find out how good or tasty their top dessert is.

For P90, I was served with their signature Ben’s Halo-Halo in a tall glass. It came with a mix of corn, ube (purple yam), macapuno, saba, white beans, milk and leche flan.

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This is the Ben’s Halo-Halo.

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At the top of Ben’s Halo-Halo.

After carefully mixing the ingredients, I took my first serving of it. The result? It tasted really good! Then I mixed it more and took another serving to find out if the resulting taste would be better or not. It still tasted good.

The halo-halo was so good and creamy, for me, there was no need to add sweetener or milk. A dessert served like this with such a good taste is a winner already for me. Of course, anyone else who wants to have their halo-halo be added with more sugar or milk will have to ask the people behind the counter. I don’t know yet if they would charge extra.

After enjoying my dessert, I decided to look further on their menu. Apart from the Ben’s Halo-Halo, they also serve Spicy Winter Halo-Halo and Salty Summer Halo-Halo. Other classic desserts include Mais Con Yelo and Macapuno Con Yelo.

They also serve rice meals (which I will try some day) like adobo, tocino, longganisa, braised beef and chicken barbeque to name some. They also have pasta and sandwiches.

As I learned during my time there, Ben’s Halo-Halo Ice Cream originally started in the city of San Pablo in the province of Laguna. It was founded by Ben Pasco who worked as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Italy for over a decade. During his years there, he got to work as a cook in a restaurant. After making some careful observations, becoming an entrepreneur entered his mind and he decided to go home to start a new business of his own.

More on their BF Homes branch, more people have been dining there. To say the least, it is a blessing for the BF Homes community that Ben’s Halo-Halo opened within the Phase 3 area.

I highly recommend the Ben’s Halo-Halo for those who crave for something cool and sweet (don’t forget to watch your blood sugar level).

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Visit their BF Homes branch now along 287 Aguirre Avenue and don’t forget to visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/bensbfhomes/

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. Also my fantasy book The World of Havenor is still available in paperback and e-book format. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me as well. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me at HavenorFantasy@twitter.com

For more South Metro Manila community news and developments, come back here soon. Also say NO to fake news, NO to irresponsible journalism, NO to misinformation, NO to plagiarists and NO to sinister propaganda when it comes to news and developments.