It was eleven thirty in the evening.  I woke up drenched in sweat for I forgot to switch on the air conditioning unit before I fell asleep.  It’s already the third week of May and yet the scorching summer heat still lingers here in Metro Manila.  With this roasting temperature, I am starting to believe Dan Brown when he wrote in his latest novel Inferno that found in Metro Manila are the gates of hell.

I tried but could no longer go back to sleep, I slipped into my old blue jeans and put on a freshly laundered singlet.  I proceeded outside the streets of “the gates of hell” to find anything that will cease the torridity off my body.

About a hundred meters away from my flat while walking through Vito Cruz Street I found an eatery.  It’s about to close but I begged the attendant to let me in for I want to order, guess what? Answer: Halo-Halo.

Yeah! There is a new Teresita’s branch here in hell-gate Vito Cruz!!!  It’s no longer just in the far away hell-gate Tomas Morato!!!

teresita’s in vito cruz street, manila

alone inside this refreshment parlor, i did not hesitate taking these photos

these ladies must be canonized as saints or angels by the vatican

Of course I ordered the “Special” version, i.e. with “minatamis na langka” (sweetened jackfruit) only worth Php 95.  It’s not the generic Filipino halo-halo neither the typical Razon’s halo-halo.  Instead it’s of a grandeur version, that is, with heaps of chunky-to-the-bite banana, brutal portions of glutinous macapuno, the sweet viscous lumps of tasty langka, smooth shaved ice with super generous amount of the vicious and sinful leche flan.  I swear to God they have the tastiest halo-halo in all face of heaven, purgatory and hell.

don’t be fooled by the lucid and incomplex look of this halo-halo. astonishing heaven is lodged beneath those shaved ice

After paying my bill and start to walk back to my unit, I realized that Tesesita’s Halo Halo is something that can be compared to a piece of heaven and that I am actually glad to be living here in the “gates of hell”.

Makasalanan sa sobrang sarap!