Lugaw king crowned street food champ

MANILA, Philippines - After epic cook-offs and exciting stall visits, 10 of the best street food cooks clashed one last time at the grand finals of SM Hypermarket Best Pinoy Street Food where they competed to impress not only some top food critics led by chef Boy Logro but also assorted street food lovers. In fact, chef Logro’s first challenge in the two-part competition was to pair up and cook a noodle-based dish of their choice for 100 people. And the final four were: Hercules Umali of Star-BAKS Sizzling and Frappe in Quezon City, Jose Nestor Guevara II of Lola Ebeng’s Lugawan & BBQ-han in Las Piñas, Merly Dulay-Co of Merly’s Gotohan in Pasay, and Eloisa Cabrales of Cab’s Burgeria in Batangas.

The last but the most challenging, according to the final four, was chef Boy’s ultimate challenge to recreate his signature “Crepe Surprise,” an interesting kind of crepe filled with cream and seafood. The four finalists were given only 30 minutes to create their crepes.

Jose Nestor Guevara II, a.k.a. Jones, jumped high into the air and stomped hard on the stage as his name was called as the first grand champion of the country’s most epic street food battle ever.

“Since elementary school, I have always been good at copying,” Jones joked. Turning serious, he said, “There are many of us street food vendors here now at the Best Pinoy Street Food, where we show our skill in cooking, proving that the quality of street food is not far from the taste of more expensive food.” 

Jones, owner of Lola Ebeng’s Lugawan and BBQ-han, is set to operate his very own food stall at SM Hypermarket rent-free for a year as well as take home P100,000 worth of prizes, including an SM Prestige Card loaded with points, large food packs, ingredients, cooking equipment, etc. courtesy of SM Hypermarket’s Food Service Center. 

“What SM is doing is good because we really have to give attention to street food. First of all, there are a lot of Pinoys who are fond of street food, rich or poor. The Filipino masa grew up with it. We can really be proud of Pinoy street food,” remarked chef Boy.

Jones opened his small food business in their garage and named it after his mom. Their house is in front of a church and his clients are mostly people who come to hear Mass or those working in the parish, which is why Lola Ebeng is open only on weekends.

“Thank you to SM Hypermarket for giving me the opportunity to show my talent and for helping a lot of street food vendors like me. I promise you will keep going back for our signature dishes,” he declared.

Freebies were given by the event’s sponsors: Purefoods Funstuff Nuggets, Tender Juicy Hotdog, Fiesta Ham, Crisp n’ Juicy, Star Chickn’ Tasty Hotdog, Thick Cut Bacon, Unilever Food Solutions, Nestle All-Purpose Cream, Maggi, Knorr, Bounty Fresh Chicken, Bibbo Hotdog, Bibbo Cheesedog, CDO Ulam Burger, Funstastik Young Pork Tocino, Del Monte, P&G, and Joy. 

The other judges were chef Paulo Sia of Unilever, chef Niño Logarta of CDO, chef John Valley of Purefoods, and Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet.