Iloilo Noodle Soup · Pork Offal Broth
La Paz Batchoy
Photo: Heidigutierrez / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0
According to the family behind one of its earliest versions, the dish got its name from a joking, made-up answer — its creator supposedly blurted out 'bats' when asked what to call it, then tacked on '-choy' from chop suey.
Round egg noodles are ladled into a pork-and-shrimp broth loaded with sliced pork organs, beef, and crushed pork cracklings, then topped with fried garlic and a raw egg cracked in tableside. Iloilo City's La Paz Public Market is the dish's spiritual home, with several competing stalls each claiming the original recipe.
Why it's made this way: The dish likely traces back to Iloilo's Chinese community, with Federico Guillergan Sr. credited with concocting it in 1938, and it has since become so tied to the city that Iloilo runs an annual Batchoy Festival during Dinagyang.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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