Who hasn't heard of batchoy? Raise your hand. According to wikipedia, batchoy has been around since the late 1930s. If you haven't heard of batchoy, then it's time you crawled out from under your rock.
There are only two places in Cebu that I know of that offer batchoy: Carlo's (last time I had Carlo's batchoy was maybe five years ago!) and Ted's, which I spotted only recently at APM Mall, across SM City Cebu.
The batchoy I know has miki or egg noodles, pork, chicharon (fried pork skin), and the optional pork liver and pork intestine. At Ted's they have beef, miswa, and sotanghon batchoy. Aside from the variety of batchoy, they also have breakfast meals available all day, and four meal choices that come with a small bowl of batchoy. Click on the photo below for the full menu.
I got batchoy with the works or "extra super batchoy" as what it's called at Ted's. It has pork, liver, intestines. And for 10 pesos more, an egg. Batchoy buddy just ordered the "special batchoy", no liver, no intestines, no egg. Because she is boring like that (her words, not mine).
Extra Super Batchoy (left) and Special Batchoy (right)
Call me picky but I have some issues with Ted's batchoy. One, Ted's too stingy with the chicharon (look! you can barely see the chicharon). Two, the hardly-there chicharon was hard. Three, the intestines look like it had some kind of disease.
Sickly looking intestines...makes me sick just looking at it.
But the broth, oh, the broth, was its saving grace. It was delicious. I drank it all like a fish.
Woe is me, I haven't been to Ted's original branch in La Paz, Iloilo...this would have been a "Batchoy vs Batchoy" post.
Ted's Oldtimer Lapaz Batchoy
APM Mall, A Soriano Avenue, North Reclamation Area, Cebu City
(032) 520 5772
Daily 9AM to 10PM
Can also be found in Mactan island:
CG Salcedo Building, Maximo Patalinghug Avenue, Basak, Lapu-Lapu City
How Ted made some money off of Mustachio:
Special Batchoy Php 65
Extra Super Batchoy Php 70
Egg Php 10
Iced tea Php 32