La Paz Batchoy

Batchoy is a noodle soup made with pork organs, crushed pork cracklings, chicken stock, beef loin and round noodles and Ginamos (dried fermented shrimp paste) Its origins can be traced to the district of La Paz, Iloilo City in the Philippines, hence it is oftentimes referred to as La Paz Batchoy.

The dish was concocted in the La Paz market in 1938 by Federico Guillergan, Sr. His recipe called for a mixture of broth, noodles, beef and pork. The soup later evolved into its present form which has become Iloilo City's most popular dish. Federico Guillergan, Jr., the son of the soup's inventor, states that his father at first jokingly called the dish "bats" when asked for its name. Later, he added "choy", from the vegetable dish chop suey.

Teodorico Lepura opened his first batchoy shop at the La Paz public market in 1945 called Deco's. Run by Lepura, his wife and their children, the shop sold the original La Paz batchoy at that time priced at 20 centavos per bowl. In the 1930s, as a teenager, Lepura learned the basics of making La Paz batchoy while working for a Chinese merchant, and eventually concocted his own version of the dish.

There are three contenders in Iloilo City claiming originality-Deco's, Netong's and Ted's.