Money Can Buy Happiness

Ice Cream Man also gave a cone, free of charge.

For all the cheapskate tourists who visit the Philippines for charity work-- this is the ultimate dessert. It's ice cream but we call it sorbetes, which is Spanish for sherbet.

Sorbetes was introduced during the American colonial period when the Americans, whilst brainwashing Filipinos, were thoughtful enough to haul in refrigerators and coolers to compensate for the crazy equatorial climate. Whereas sherbet is made from cow's milk, egg white and fruit syrup, the sorbetes uses the same ingredients but replaces the first with coconut milk. Cassava flour is also added to the mixture. 

Usually we Filipinos eat it served in a plastic cup, wafer or sugar cone; sometimes with bread buns thrown in for good measure (though I have never tried that). Sorbeteros, those men you see peddling wooden sorbetes carts during noontime, use handheld bells to call lazy bums out of their houses. They stuff shaved ice and salt in large metal canisters to keep the temperature low and the sorbetes frozen throughout the day.

Cheap and yummy. Perfect. (Just don't mind the fact that other people call it "dirty ice cream.")