HDB Private Diner Expands Into Peranakan Eatery In Hong Kong With 2-Hour Queue

According to Tinoq, it was mostly Singaporean expats who flocked to his restaurant. “They were so supportive, I couldn’t believe it,” he gushes to 8days.sg over the phone from Hong Kong. “I almost cried when they brought their Singaporean family and friends along. I have never seen Singaporeans so close.”

Being fellow countrymen in a foreign land, they readily offered Tinoq their support. He recalls, “They brought us books, cards and teddy bears. They even gave us their numbers and said, ‘If you need anything, call us.’ It’s a feeling I can’t describe. You will only experience this when you’re overseas.”

Other than F&B, Tinoq and Dylan also have day jobs in Singapore as a celeb make-up artist and hairstylist respectively. Together, they have styled stars like Crazy Rich Asians’ Constance Lau.

They forayed into the food biz when Tinoq (pictured, right), a talented home cook, started a popular kampong-style Peranakan private diner. Called 1 Catty n A Pinch, it operates out of their two-room HDB flat in Tiong Bahru, where they also keep an edible garden teeming with herbs and flowers that Tinoq adds to his dishes.

One customer at their riotously kitschy diner (seen above) was JIA Group’s founder Yenn Wong, who approached Tinoq and Dylan about opening a Peranakan restaurant in Hong Kong. Other than Bibi & Baba, her group currently runs other buzzy HK eateries like Duddell’s and 22 Ships.

“Everyone said don’t go there, you will kill yourself,” recounts Tinoq on his ballsy move to open a restaurant overseas during a global pandemic. “But Dylan and I are fearless. We are rebels. If you don’t take a step forward, you won’t learn anything. We have no regrets every time we see the queue [outside our restaurant].”

The two men are the ‘face’ of the restaurant, having dyed their hair a distinctive shocking pink. They are also officially the “executive chefs and culinary directors” of Bibi & Baba, and will personally cook there till the end of this year before they return to Singapore. “We’re going to stay till December and see how the travel bubble situation is. But we must be here to keep a tab on things,” says Tinoq.

Photo: Joel Low

In the Hong Kong dining scene, Nonya cuisine is still an anomaly. “They have Malaysian and Chinese food, but not Peranakan food, which is very different,” Tinoq notes. Which is why he takes pains to explain the rich history of his cuisine to diners. “We need to - I won’t say educate - but slowly tell people about the culture, lifestyle and food.”

The gregarious Tinoq - who is of Indian-Chinese descent, speaks Mandarin and grew up in a Pasir Panjang kampong - encourages conversation whenever he’s cooking at Bibi & Baba’s open-concept kitchen. “People can see us and they ask us questions, so it’s not so monotonous. They talk about things like The Little Nyonya show. It’s so cute lah,” he chirps.

Bibi & Baba’s most popular dish is ngoh hiang, made using a recipe Tinoq created when he started cooking at nine years old. “Laksa, prawn noodles, assam pedas, babi pongteh and kueh pie tee are very popular here too,” he observes.

Prices range from HK$38 ($6.60) for Achar to HK$78 (S$13.70) for Kueh Pie Tee, to HK$288 (S$50.60) for the Assam Pedas fish (pictured). There are also Singaporean-style drinks like Bandung (HK$48/S$8.80) and Milo Dinosaur (HK$88/S$15.50). While some items (like the beverages) are significantly more expensive than in Singapore, Bibi & Baba’s menu prices reflect the generally high cost of dining at a hip restaurant in Hong Kong.

Most of the dishes’ ingredients are imported, as they are not readily available in Hong Kong. But Tinoq faithfully sticks to “authentic” Nonya recipes. “If you want to do Peranakan food, do it properly,” he avers. “There’s a lot of support from Singaporeans and Malaysians for us, and they say, ‘Please don’t change the taste of the food’. They came here and told us they felt very at home. They were like, ‘Oh my god, this is like how my family cooks it.’”

But he was surprised that his food was a hit with Hongkongers. “They freaking love Peranakan food. They’re so open and willing to try [new types of food]. They said the ayam buah keluak is ho lat, ho sek (Cantonese for ‘so spicy, so delicious’). Some ingredients we use, like taucu (fermented soybeans), they recognised ’cos they use it in their cooking too,” he shares.

In Hong Kong, Tinoq sometimes runs into shortages for hard-to-find ingredients. “Suppliers have very limited stock. Out of nowhere they tell you, ‘Sorry we don’t have lemongrass’. We make everything ourselves, from prawn noodles to sambal belacan. So we have to always be on our feet and think very fast,” he says. “We air-freight tau pok from Singapore for our Laksa (pictured, HK$102/ S$18). We have 99% of the ingredients here, but we try to support local too, like the beancurd skin we use for our ngoh hiang.”

Since arriving in HK to set up Bibi & Baba, Tinoq has lost 6kg from slogging in the kitchen. “When I came here I was 72kg, now I’m 66kg. It’s amazing lah, Hong Kong,” he cackles. “Part-owning a restaurant is not an easy job. It’s like our baby and we need to take care of it.” In Tinoq and Dylan’s absence when they’re back in Singapore, a team of Malaysian and Indonesian chefs will helm the kitchen. “Their [home country’s] food is similar to ours. We work with them, then we leave them to do their magic,” explains Tinoq.

He has already gotten offers to open more outlets in Singapore and Hong Kong. “A bar, or noodle bar, we have plans for that in the future. We have been discussing with Yenn and Alan [Lo, her husband]. But let’s see how lah. This is my new baby, and I don’t want to have so many babies (laughs).” He reckons there’s also a possibility of opening a restaurant in China. “We have been approached, but I only want to work with the JIA Group,” he says.

While they are taking their Peranakan dishes to places, Tinoq and Dylan have plans to resume their original careers as a make-up artist and hairstylist. “We’re coming back [to Singapore] to do make-up too, because it’s our love. So we have a job lah, doing hair and make-up!”

Bibi & Baba, 1-7 Ship St, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. www.bibiandbaba.hk.

PHOTOS: JIA GROUP