WHILE MANY restaurants in the metropolis serve batchoy as part of their regular fare, people at Deco’s Original Batchoy insist that what others offer are not the same as Deco’s. Chinese Merchant Families of Iloilo: Commerce and Kin in a Central Philippine City  “Not all batchoys are created equal,” they claim, adding that the one served at Deco’s is different and better. Deco’s “invented” batchoy, they say, and as such, it offers much more than a delicious treat of clear soup with noodles and all those toppings. With every bowl of batchoy served at Deco’s comes a glimpse of history of this Iloilo specialty and more. The batchoy we know today has come a long way and has undergone various modifications from the batchoy that a young butcher named Federico Guillergan Sr., or Deco, started in 1938 in a carinderia at the La Paz public market in Iloilo City. Beginnings It started as a simple soup made of meat stock garnished with local herbs and spices. It was an instant hit. People trooped to Deco’s carinderia for the soup. Later, it attracted the huge Chinese population of the city, who joined the flock that patronized Deco’s makeshift eatery in the public market. To cater to the Chinese market, noodles were added. This offering had no name, so whenever Deco was asked about how the bowl of soup with noodles was called, he would just answer batchoy which, in Chinese, simply means meat soup. The name stuck and was used by all the other restaurants that offered this Ilonggo specialty. Some call it La Paz batchoy as it started in La Paz, Iloilo. The “inventor,” Deco Guillergan Sr., is long gone, but his legacy lives on. And despite the proliferation of restaurants that offer batchoy, his original La Paz batchoy remains a cut above the rest, preferred especially by patrons with discriminating taste. New phase An enterprising Ilonggo businessman, Edgar J. Sia, who is better known for his Mang Inasal fast-food chain, had always wanted to go into “batchoyan” but he knew it was difficult to start from scratch. Deco’s Original Batchoy attracted his interest and he decided it would be a great product and brand to carry in line with the expansion of Sia’s Injap Investments Inc. Sia hooked up with Federico Sr.’s four children and the alliance started. The original batchoy recipe of Deco’s remained a “heavily guarded secret,” so the eldest of the brood, Federico Jr. or Nonoy, joined Sia and is now the food consultant at Deco’s. The 70-year-old Nonoy oversees Deco’s commissary in Iloilo and makes sure everything remains true to the original. Deco’s was folded into Sia’s Injap Investments. The first item on its agenda was to put up more Deco’s restaurants in Iloilo and neighboring provinces in the Visayas. There are now six Deco’s restaurants on the island, all under Injap, except the original which the family of Guillergan Sr. decided to keep. Batchoy in the city The 33-year-old Sia felt that Deco’s batchoy had to be brought to Metro Manila and other key cities in the country to bring the original batchoy within the reach of consumers outside the Visayas. “The plan is to package Deco’s in tandem with Mang Inasal. He intended to go full blast with Deco’s expansion when demand for Mang Inasal outlets starts slowing down,” says franchise manager Meryl Aniñon. However, the very first Deco’s in Metro Manila, according to Aninon, was not really planned. Mang Inasal got a corner space on the ground floor of the then newly opened Alphaland Southgate building on the corner of Edsa and Pasong Tamo. According to Aniñon, Injap found the space too big for Mang Inasal, so Sia decided to make use of the extra space in the area to introduce Deco’s to the Metro Manila market. This was not the first time Deco’s reached out to the market in Manila. In 1967, Nonoy brought the original batchoy—prepared the way taught to him and his siblings by his father—to España in Manila when he put up a dormitory near the University of Santo Tomas. For 30 years, Deco’s on España was home to thousands, mainly students, and those lured by the inviting aroma of Deco’s batchoy. In 1997, though, both the dormitory and Decos closed shop. Modern outlets With Injap, the reentry of Deco’s into the Metro Manila market and other key cities in the country, as envisioned by Sia, will make a big wave. While keeping the original taste of Guillergans’ batchoy, Deco’s offering is now served in more modern restaurants and comes with lots of toppings and add-ons—“bottomless” kaldo or broth, crispy chicharon, garlic and onion. The Deco’s in Alphaland opened in August last year. It was followed in June by Deco’s Savemore in Novaliches. It will soon open on Taft Avenue in Manila, Tomas Morato in Quezon City and in SM Baguio. More will be opened soon either by Injap, itself, or by franchisees. Sia targeted to put up 30 Deco’s restaurants this year, in time for the expected tapering off of the demand for new Mang Inasal outlets. “He thought demand for Mang Inasal would start going down when the number of outlets reaches 250. But he was wrong. We have reached 250 and we are constructing 30 more Mang Inasal outlets,” Aninon says. With his hands already full with the expansion of Mang Inasal, the plan for Deco’s was slightly modified. “Deco’s expansion is ongoing and it is expected to go on at a faster pace soon,” says Aninon. |
Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer August 15, 2010 |
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