Special Batchoy

My high school friend Jo Anne and I were talking a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about how long we’ve (high school friends) known each other. We met when we were 12. And this year, most of us (except Jo Anne) will be turning 30. We’ve known each other for more than half our lives. Well, no big deal, most high school friends our age, share the same statistics. But, we are a self-proclaimed special bunch, we call ourselves the Vanguards.

What makes us special? Well, our whole high school lives, we’ve been brainwashed that we are special. Our alma mater is the Iloilo National High School-Special Science Class. Is it the science that’s special? Or is it the class? I never figured that out.

And thanks to the Internet, I found a brief history of our school. http://www.geocities.com/inhs_iloilo/ssc.html. I don’t know how many special science classes there are now in the country. But the article had some pretty interesting revelations. So if you want to know more, just click on the link.

Anyway, speaking of Iloilo and the word special, several vanguards and I ate batchoy last Christmas. (For the past 12 years, the Vanguards have been meeting every Christmas.)

Iloilo, particularly La Paz, is famous for its batchoy, a type of noodle soup. According to Wikipedia, batchoy’s ingredients include pork organs (liver, spleen, kidneys and heart) crushed pork cracklings, vegetables, shrimp, chicken breast or beef loin, shrimp broth, chicken stock and round noodles or miki. Yummy.......The ingredients remind me how motley this motley crew is. The noodles are similar to spaghetti, but are generally a bit finer.

Anyway, batchoy has several variants:

Special
Super Special
Extra Super Special

I think they can come up with as many superlatives as they want.

But one thing’s clear, batchoy is not your regular dish. Special indeed…… back when we were 12 and especially now that we’re 30. Not the batchoy.