Nonya cuisine is an excellent example of fusion cooking, based on Chinese and Malaysian cooking but also with Indonesian, Portuguese, Indian and Thai traces, and can be found in Malaysia and Singapore. Already more than 500 years ago, during the Ming Dynasty, Princess Hang Li Po, the daughter of Yongle, the Emperor of China, was married to the Sultan of Malacca, Mansur Shah. Malacca was already a flourishing port back then. The princess brought five hundred Chinese men with her, and most of them got married to Malay women.  The men were called Baba, the women Nyonya or Nonya. Nonya means woman in the Chinese Hokkien dialect. Baba means father in many countries and even in Bangladesh the word baba is used as such.
In 1511, the Portuguese captured Malacca, thus gaining power over one of the important spice trade routes. They also left their stamp on Nonya recipes. After that, the Dutch invaded Malacca for some time, but the Dutch cuisine is not very well reflected in Malay cooking history.
Nonya cooking itself has different varieties: in the South (Malacca and Singapore) you will find Indonesian influence. Coconut milk, sugar and Malay spices are used. Portuguese influence is also there. In the North, around Penang, food is often made sour or tangy by using tamarind (asam) or green mangoes. In the Nonya cuisine, “belacan” is often used, this is a dried shrimp paste-cake. If you cannot find that, you can also use another shrimp paste. The Nonya recipes invariably need a mixture of delicious spices and use almost only fresh ingredients, like in most forms of oriental cooking.