Hubba Hubba Halo Halo

Celebrating Ministop's awesome ice cream parfait

All conbini have killer items – the unique products that get customers to not just come back again and again but feel an affinity for a brand. FamilyMart has the Famichiki; Lawson has karaagekun; and Ministop has ice cream. In the summer months, Ministop takes ice cream to new heights with its Halo Halo series. 

The Halo Halo is a parfait that layers crushed ice, vanilla soft serve ice cream, and a featured ingredient like fruit or jelly. It’s a traditional Filipino dessert, and the term is derived from the Tagalog word “halo” which means “mix”. Filipinos typically make them with crushed ice, evaporated milk, sweetened fruits and beans, jellies, and ube (purple yam) ice cream.

This history of Halo Halo

Ministop began selling them in 1995. The first two flavors were strawberry and Ramune, the popular soda. Ice sits on the bottom, followed by a featured flavor, and then the soft serve sits on top. Toward the end of spring Ministop releases the year’s first flavor and continues until the end of summer. Last year saw eight Halo Halo combinations. 

One is not like the other.

Halo Halo aren’t just tasty. They are beautiful. Yes, Famichiki is tasty. But it’s dressed like a lame tech bro with nothing but a branded paper bag. Recognizing its value is so high, the Famichiki is confident leaving the house and attending VC meetings in sweat shorts and a hoodie. The Halo Halo, on the other hand, has substance and style. It’s Jay-Z and Beyonce mixing amazing music with turn-your-head flair. When you buy a Halo Halo you’re signaling to the world that you’re not just anyone. You’re someone. 

Stunning

Here's the Halo Halo dressed in simple pineapple and soft serve. The yellow pops against the snow-white vanilla ice cream. Perfect for a hot summer’s day when Japan’s brutal humidity swallows your body in its steamy cage, the tart pineapple mixed with the sweet soft serve will leave you feeling refreshed and happy. Cleverly, Ministop uses the pineapple to make the shaved ice! Say goodbye to watered-down bites. Melted ice just becomes pineapple juice! Each scoop will mix creamy ice cream, juicy pineapple chunks, and ice cold pineapple shards. It is stunning!

Halo Halo often shows off its Japanese heritage. Last month, Ministop released the Hojicha Warabi Halo Halo. It pairs the classic soft serve and ice with hojicha, which is roasted green tea commonly served chilled in the summer. Slap a pair of tortoise shell glasses and a sport coat on this thing and it would be ready to lecture at Oxford. A layer of warabi mochi sits between the ice cream and ice. Warabi mochi is a translucent, chewy Japanese sweet made from pounding warabi or tapioca starch until it's gelatinous. The textures abound: soft, creamy ice cream followed by chewy warabi, and finally, crispy ice. I’m already googling “How do I date my professor?”

During these summer months, trade the sweat shorts and battered t-shirt for a breezy linen shirt and chinos, then cruise down main street smiling with every bite of your Halo Halo.

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Are you feeling things? Because I’m feeling things.

Item of the Week

It's impossible to lavish too much praise on Lawson’s Uchi Café series. The sweets are staggeringly good. This week they’re dishing out a double cheesecake stick featuring baked cheesecake and rare cheesecake. Japan’s baked cheesecake is light and airy, similar to a souffle. Rare cheese is a rich, unbaked mix of cream cheese and sugar. I’d buy these three at a time. 

From the Dumpster

In partnership with the Japan Natto Cooperative Society Federation, FamilyMart is celebrating Natto Day on July 10. Why July 10? July in Japanese is pronounced “nana-gatsu” and the tenth day of the month is “touka”. So, they’ve combined the “na” and “tou” to get Natto Day. 

Natto is fermented soy beans. I’ll save details on its wretchedness for next week’s newsletter, but the basic facts are its stinky and slimy. Japan often piles slimy stuff on top of slimy stuff. It’s like a booger compounding with other boogers resulting in a Kool-Aid-Man-sized snot that wobbles and slides in your mouth until you can’t help but puke your guts out. 

Doesn’t it look tasty?

This tofu block looks tasty. Who doesn’t enjoy chilled tofu doused in soy sauce with crispy tempura bits? But don’t be fooled. FamilyMart pairs this with not just natto but ground yamaimo (mountain potato). The latter is even more fiendish because it has but one texture – slimy. At least natto has a bean to grab onto and bite into. Ground yamaimo is pure ooze. It’s impossible to pickup with chopsticks, requiring you to hold the bowl just below your lips and suck it in your mouth like a Dyson vacuum. There’s nothing to chew. A wet glob sloshes around your tongue glazing it in slime. It either glides down your throat like a loogie or gets spat out into the nearest napkin. Beware of this ostensibly refreshing snack. 

Conbini Haiku

Japanese summer

Sweat dripping down my body

Need Halo Halo

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