Chef Romy Dorotan's take on the halo halo - a parfait of watermelon ice, sorbets, ice creams, fruits and Philippine goodies.
Many years ago when we still had Cendrillon, Romy decided to do a frozen parfait using his watermelon lime ice as a base. Then he kept going piling raspberry sorbet, passionfruit sorbet, avocado ice cream and dropping in blueberries, melons and other fruits that were in season. Many customers were enthralled and kept coming back just to have it. Some Filipinos called it the frozen halo halo. Some customers want to rename it as a summer sundae treat. Whatever it comes out to be, it is a most remarkable iced dessert. Now at Purple Yam, Romy has even added Philippine delicacies like macapuno, kaong and jackfruit which really makes it a great halo halo for the lactose intolerant (like me).
If you want to have this, make sure your waitstaff understands what you mean by the frozen halo halo to differentiate it from the regular halo halo that we have. You can also request to change the passionfruit and avocado with jackfruit and raspberry. Just a suggestion. If you are a group, you can have several variations. That would drive our pastry guy crazy, but so what?
The Chef as Bartender
The Chef is also good at mixing drinks. For the scorching days of summer, here are a couple of drinks he came up with to lower your body temp a bit:
Kalamansi lychee soju on crushed ice
Now that fresh lychees are everywhere, it is a great time to enjoy this drink. So nice to munch on fresh lychees soaked in soju, too.
Strawberry rhubarb sake on crushed ice
We carry Dry sodas that are made with natural ingredients and very little sugar. The Dry Rhubarb works very well with this drink. Romy gets beautiful strawberries and rhubarb from the green markets in both Grand Army Plaza on Sat and the one across us on Cortelyou Rd every Sunday. He makes a strawberry rhubarb compote and adds sake and the rhubarb soda to the compote in crushed ice. It is delicious!
For those who are really not into too much alcohol, fear not, enjoy these two drinks virgin style and they will be as refreshing as ever — and you can drive even after a few!
Stay cool and stop by for our drinks. I will post on some wonderful wines that Chef Romy has chosen for our wine list (yes, he does our wine list, too!)
