La Paz Batchoy

Batchoy comes from the La Paz district of Iloilo City, and the version made there is the reference. Fresh egg noodles go into a pork and bone broth deepened with shrimp paste, topped with slices of pork, liver and other offal, a scatter of crushed chicharon, fried garlic and spring onion, and often a raw egg dropped in to cook in the heat. It is eaten at any hour, most seriously at the market stalls where the broth has been going since dawn. Iloilo takes its food seriously in general, and pancit molo, a wonton soup named after another district of the city, comes from the same few streets.

What you actually see

• The broth - pork and bone stock seasoned with shrimp paste, simmered from before dawn.
• The chicharon topping - crushed pork crackling scattered over the bowl and stirred in.
• The offal slices - liver and other cuts laid on the noodles, the part that defines it.
• Pancit molo - the other Iloilo district soup, pork dumplings in a clear chicken broth.

When to go

Year-round and at any hour; the market stalls open early and batchoy is a breakfast dish as much as a lunch one. Go to La Paz market in the morning when the broth is at its freshest and the stalls are busy. Iloilo's Dinagyang festival in the fourth week of January fills the city.

Honest expectations

Offal is the point of the dish, and if that is not for you, batchoy is not for you; asking for it without is asking for a different soup. The market stalls are hot, cramped and shared, on plastic stools with elbows either side. The raw egg is standard unless refused. Versions served in air-conditioned chains around the country are noticeably thinner than the market ones.

Nearby

Iloilo City's Calle Real heritage buildings are downtown; the Miagao church is forty minutes south.