It's summer here in the Philippines and for those of you who are living in the temperate regions, believe me when I say it is hot as hell! When you don't have air conditioning, it's not your morning alarm that will wake you up, but your sweat drenching you from the morning heat. If you ever find yourself outside starting at 10 in the morning, you will melt under the summer sun! Our temperatures here can go as high as 40掳C (104掳F). People flock to the beaches, seek airconditioned rooms, or overdose on cold desserts to beat the summer heat.
Across the University where I work, there's this dessert place called 18 Degrees that sold frozen and cold desserts. For some countries, 18掳C is summertime temperature. But here, that is a common air conditioning temperature. You could get fruit bowls, parfaits, and frozen yogurt at 18 Degrees. You could even assemble your own dessert.
On one particular summer day, my colleagues and I visited the place. It had a colorful and cute interior with pastel walls, neon lights, and plenty of natural light. On the wall, the words read, "Because dessert never hurts." We enjoyed our parfaits with mangoes, chia seeds, walnuts, and cereals. Of course, dessert can hurt. But inside the restaurant and in the comfort of the air conditioning, the heat outside was 'more hurtful' than the cup of sugary goods we consumed.
I had a mango graham parfait with corn chips. It was the perfect summer dessert. We are abundant in mangoes in the Philippines and we're lucky that mango season is also during summer time. We sat inside 18 Degrees until we couldn't finish our desserts because they were either too sweet or too much. Dessert can hurt, and it even hurt more when we had to step out of the store and face the reality of the summer heat once again.
Stay hydrated everyone! And stay out of extreme heat. 馃槑
