Lunch on the Lanaii

Each Wednesday Cindy and I take turns hosting lunch on our lanaiis (screen porch) for those working at the clinic. We usually prepare lunch for 11 to 13 people. This meal is usually Filipino fare and I rely totally on Dhel, our Filipino helper to help me out. When it is our week to host I always ask for her recommendations for the menu. Today we had fish called Talapia that was fried and then wrapped in petchay leaves and cooked in coconut milk and of course a meal wouldn't be complete without rice. Dhel and the Nelsen's helper, Elena are responsible for doing the bulk of this cooking. I usually take care of the dessert which is never Filipino. Filipino desserts have not become one of Allan and my favorites. While we have tried many different sticky rice desserts, we have yet to try a Filipino specialty called "Halo-halo" meaning mix mix. It is basically a mixture of sweet preserved beans(red beans, chick peas), coconut meat, jackfruit, pounded dried rice, ube (a root crop like a sweet yam that is purple in color), cream flan, and banana, filled with crushed ice, milk (or coconut milk) and topped with ice cream. There are different variations to the filling. The halo-halo basically is sweet and creamy, but I can't seem to get excited about a dessert with beans. We keep promising the kids we will go try one at Chowking- a Filipino fast food restaurant that supposedly has a good halo-halo. The kids for some reason are not looking forward to this. For now those brownies we had for dinner filled our sweet tooth. Thanks for the recipe Laura Lawrence!
Ginger