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Singapore, July 2026 – This August, Katong and Bintan come together through a culinary collaboration celebrating two neighbourhoods and ten years of Baba Chews.

Chef Huang Jiaxing of Baba Chews and Chef Erik Gremmer, Cluster Executive Head Chef of Hotel Indigo Bintan Lagoi Beach, presents Across the Straits – Katong x Bintan, a six-course 4-hands menu available from 1 to 16 August 2026.

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, THE HOTEL, THE STORY
Rooted in Katong’s Peranakan heritage, Baba Chews has sepnt a decade reimagining familiar local flavours for today. Across the strait, Hotel Indigo Bintan Lagoi Beach draws inspiration from the island’s Riau Malay traditions, local produce and coastal communities.

TWO CHEFS, TWO COASTLINES
Chef Huang’s cooking combines refined techniques with the nostalgic flavours of his childhood, shaped by experience at acclaimed Singapore kitchens. Chef Erik brings more than 25 years of international experience and a strong commitment to seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. Together, they create a menu grounded in heritage, place and shared culinary values.

“Katong is a neighbourhood that holds its stories in the food. You can taste the history in a bowl of laksa, in the sambal, in the way we cook with coconut and kaffir lime. When I cook at Baba Chews, I am trying to honour those stories and make them feel alive for today. This collaboration with Chef Erik is a natural extension of that – we are both trying to do the same thing, just on different shores.” – Chef Huang Jiaxing, Head Chef, Hotel Indigo Singapore Katong

“At Lagoi the land teachs you how to cook. The belimbing, the spices, the catch from the water – the island has its own language, and I have spent years learning to speak it. When Jiaxing and I began building this menu, I realised we share the same philosophy, expressed in two different dialects. The menu is a conversation that has been waiting to happen.” – Chef Erik Gremmer, Cluster Executive Chef, Hotel Indigo Bintan Lagoi Beach

A JOURNEY IN SIX COURSES

The evening opens with a Katong Kiss – a welcome drink of lcyhee, rose and calamansi that arrives like a coastal breeze: foral, citrusy, and quietly celebratory. It is a katong in a glass: familiar flavours lifted by island freshness, an early hint of the conversation to come.

Course One, ‘Straits Beginning,’ begins where Jiaxing’s own story begins. The Singapore Chilli Crab Bao is the Sunday feast of his childhood – the chilli crab that first made him fall in love with Singapore’s flavours – distilled into a single, irresistible bite. Baba Chew’s signature chilli sauce meets Bintan’s briny bamboo clams, kissed with riau spice and kaffir lime lead dressing. Two icons, one bun, two coastlines in every mouthful.

Course Two, The crossing deepens at ‘Shore to Shore,’ where the kitchen belongs entirely to Bintan. The Bintan Ikan Asam Pedas – a hot and sour poached barramundi – speaks in the flavour language of the Riau Malay coast: belimbing sourced from the trees that grow near Lagoi resort, a broth built on generations of kampung instinct. Served simply with steamed rice, it is a course that needs nothing much than honesty to be extraordinary.

Course Three, at ‘Island Fire Satay,’ two coastlines share a flame. Chef Erik’s lamb satay, charred and fragrant with marangi spice from Bintan’s spice trading heritage, arrive with belachan sambal that carries the fermented depth of the Peranakan pantry. The Sate Kambing is proof that some flavours affinities across effortlessly – a dish that could only have been made by two chefs who trust each other.

Course Four, the heart of the experience, ‘Katong Meets Lagoi,’ is precisely what its name promises. Jiaxing’s Nasi Lemak Risotto reimagines a national icon with Italian elegance: creamy coconut arborio carrying ever note of the classic hawker dish, crowned with Bintan’s turmeric squid and Singapore straight shrimp, a silken onsen egg at its centre, the irreplaceable crunch of ikan bilis crumb beneath. It is the course where the map dissolves and two kitchens become one.

Course Five, belongs to a decade of memory. The ’10-Year Signature’ presents Baba Chew’s Beef Cheek Rendang in is most fully realised form: slow-braised in a deeply layered Peranakan spice paste, served with fragrant nasi ulam and a bright house achar. It is a dish that defines Baba Chews has always stood for – a generous Katong table, rich with flavour, heritage and heart. A dish that invites you to linger, savour and remember.

Course Six, the evening closes with’10-year Sweet finish’ – Gula Melaka Coconut Burnt Cheesecake that brings the campfire smoke of the island to sweetness of kampung memory, alongside pistachio sea salt ice cream and toasted coconut. Gula melaka – the dark, fragrant palm sugar that has sweetened Peranakan tables for generations – is the neighbourhood’s own dessert, given a modern edge. It is the last thing guests will taste, and the thing they will member longest.

A DECADE IN THE MAKING
Founded ten years ago in the heart of Katong, Baba Chews has spent a decade making the case that Peranakan cooking – that beautiful hybrid born from confluence of Malay Chinese and Southeast Asian cultures along these very straits – is as alive and evolving as it has ever been. The 4-Hands collaboration with Hotel Indigo Bintan Lagoi Beach is the restaurant’s most complete expression of the thesis: that heritage does not belong only to the past. It travels. It collaborates. It finds new meaning when it crosses the water and meets a kindred spirit on the other side.

DINING DETAILS
Event 4 Hands: Across the Straits – Katong x Bintan
Dates: 1-16 August 2026
Venue: Baba Chews, 86 East Coast Road, #01-01, Katong Square, Singapore 428788
6-course Menu (Lunch/Dinner): SGD78++ per person | SGD98++ per person with 2 cocktail pairing
IHG One Rewards Members enjoy 20% discount
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE

For more information on 4 Hands: Across the Straits Dining, visit HERE

Baba Chews
Address: 86 East Coast Road, #01-01, Katong Square, Singapore 428788
Phone: +65 6723 7025
Email: babachews@ihg.com
FB: @babachews
IG: @babachews

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