A type of Peranakan food, Nonya cuisine is a marriage of Chinese ingredients and Malay spices. Preparation of Nonya cuisine tends to be tedious and long. Slow cooking is common to draw out the flavours of the spices and ingredients, while stir-frying is also used.

Nonya Cuisine tends to be spicy hot, using doses of pungent roots such as ginger and tumeric, aromatic leaves and intensely flavorful ingredients such as shrimp paste, shallots, tamarind and chilli peppers.

Most dishes come with a healthy dose, and rightfully so, of chilli, so a strong palate will come in useful. Ayam buah keluak, babi ponteh, and itek tim form this cuisine and is presented in all its authenticity. Soups include kepetin bak wan with crabmeat and pork mince ball, and fish maw soup. The assam fish head, a popular rendition of the Indian version, offers red mullet head cooked with curry powder and spices while prawns cooked with tamarind and pineapple, and squid with sambal offer seafood alternatives. Chicken dishes are represented by Nonya chicken curry, and the ayam sio ( chicken cooked with coriander and taucheo paste).

For dessert, durian chendol, sago pudding with palm sugar, or the deliciously flavoured pulot hitam with its black glutinous rice, palm sugar syrup and coconut milk are certainly worth the effort.