Iloilo batchoy to vie for Guinness world record

Article written by Lydia C. Pendon for The Daily Guardian

MAKE it Iloilo as the home of native delicacy hot soup “batchoy’ when the Iloilo Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB) starts drumming up the well-loved soup to be included in the list of Guinness Book of world records.
City tourism officer Ben Jimena said organizers are currently looking for the biggest bowl to hold the batchoy to feed more than 300 streetchildren in one sitting here during the Dinagyang Festival. Jimena said the idea is to promote batchoy as a delicacy of Iloilo in the international audience after noting that the first thing a balikbayan or a tourist looks for is native food especially Iloilo batchoy.
The ICVB and Decos La Paz Batchoy are currently campaigning for the promotion of batchoy through the staging of the batchoy bowl which will actually become a soup kitchen for the streetchildren of Iloilo, part of the Dinagyang revelry slated on January 23-25, 2009.
Batchoy is made up beef strips, pig innards and miki pancit noodles spiced with various condiments and very hot broth of boiled pig bones and meat. Only an Ilonggo chef or homemaker knows the real batchoy taste and soup mix that
caters to the Ilonggo palate.
On the other hand, Ely Bagtasus of the Dinagyang Foundation said a special area will be put up with kiosks along the Dinagyang parade route to cater to all native delicacies and Ilonggo dishes especially the batchoy. The native delicacy strip will be a separate venue from the Iloilo Food Festival area for three days during the Dinagyang Festival.
The area is expected to be a must-see for tourists and balikbayans to sample and treat themselves with batchoy, suman, bandi, balut, valenciana, pancit molo and other native Ilonggo foods.

This would make my Dinagyang 2009 interesting and blog postings interesting. Though personally I think Guinness is getting to commercialized for the fact that almost anything and everything can end up the list, I'll make an exception on this one for its Iloilo and food. Hopefully, this is not just one media hype that would end up in a pfffftttt. But no matter what I'll do my best in covering this event.

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FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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