Razon's Halo-halo

I have seen this controversial halo-halo from a few TV shows before. And, according to the hosts, this halo-halo only has 3 things in it; aside from the shaved ice, it only has banana, milk, and leche flan. Unlike the traditional halo-halo wherein different colors are outdoing each other. But, they also say that inspite of its "lack" in ingredients, the taste is excellent. So, with so much intrigue built inside me, I decided to try and do my own taste-test. Last Sunday, was the big day. My friend and I went to Robinson's Place Manila and after a few rounds of walking, we did our food trip stop over at Razon's. As we are waiting for our turn to the counter, I casually told her about how I heard it is such a delicious one of a kind halo-halo even though it only has 3 things in it. The look at my friend's face was like "what the hell?...", obviously, she has never heard about a halo-halo that only has 3 things in it. She even said that it might not be good. But I told her that everybody who had tried it said it was good.

Then, after a few minutes of waiting on our table, the "Stars" finally came. Two glasses of two-toned halo-halo was served to us. I took its pictures, since I thought of making my review and a photo of it alongside my review wouldn't hurt. After taking pictures, we each took our halo-halo and prepared ourself for the big test.

It has two slices of leche flan on top of it, then the shaved ice, then the sweetened banana at the middle of the glass, and then the last layer of shaved ice. I took a taste of the leche flan first. It is neither too sweet nor too balnd. The next thing I did was to incorporate everything to my glass. My first spoonful was OK. My friend even commented that Chowking's is better than that glass of Razon's, I almost wanted to agree with her but as I was about to, my second spoonful already stopped me. I now understand how a halo-halo with only 3 things in it won over the halo-halo with almost every color on the color wheel in it. Razon's halo-halo was simply the best. Cliche it may seem but really, less is more. Simple is beautiful. A little goes a long way.

Razon's halo-halo has the finest shaved ice compared to those other halo-halo. The milk that poured in it really softened the ice shavings even more that its as if you are eating snow instead of ice. The sweetened banana is also excellent. It is not too sweet. It even has really soft, little macapuno strips. These macapuno strips are not like other macapuno strips because these are soft, and silk-smooth. Small banana chunks and small macapuno strips made up the sweetened banana. I think cutting it in small chunks helped it balance the taste because each bite only gives subtle sweetness, therefore not overpowering the wholeness of the halo-halo. The halo-halo is getting its sweetness from the combined power of sweetened banana and leche flan, and this combination made it simply the best.

Each mouthful of Razon's halo-halo was heaven for me. I did not realized at first that I have been saying "sarap" everytime I take a spoonful in my mouth. Well, thanks to my friend, fed up of hearing me say "sarap", she pointed it out to me as I was taking my heavenly spoonful of halo-halo into my mouth. Well, as shamefully as it may sound, but after finishing my glass of halo-halo, I just could not resist myself. I had to have another round of it. Which, I did. I ordered my second glass and repeated my journey to heaven with each mouthful of Razon's halo-halo.

Indeed, its a one of a kind halo-halo. The best so far, for me.