For The Last 100 Years, Hameediyah Restaurant Has Stuck To Its Recipe For Success.®
The founder of Hameediyah Restaurant,Mr.Nalla Kader was born in a small village called,Chittar Kottai,which when translated means 'The Prince's Fort;in the district of Ramanathapuram,Tamilnadu,India. As there were no activities of any kind that could be mentioned about the village then,it was unusually calm and
quite,except the calls for prayers from the menarets of the two beautiful ancient mosques that were often heard.The inhabitants of the village were mostly moslems.There was also a madarasah and a Tamil school. It was from this village that Mr.Nalla Kader started out to set said to look for greener pastures elsewhere.He arrived in penang in the year 1890.Penang was also known as the 'Prince Of Wales Island' then. Soon after his arrival here,Mr.Nalla Kader made arrangements to rent the site where the present shop stands.He made use of this place to prepare food. Mr.Nalla Kader used to carry the food on one of his shoulders,using a pole and two large baskets tied to their ends,to different spots along Penang Road,and other nearby areas. The Process of selling food this way or style come to be known as 'Nasi Kandar'This Term is no longer relevant as the mode of 'dispensing' food does not exist now. After a period of several years,Mr.Nalla Kader decided to make the place where he prepared the food as the permanent site to conduct his business and stopped from going one place to another. In the early days,most of his customers were largely immigrant port workers,local trade communities,rickshaw pullers and other local residents,including government administrative employees and other alike. Mr.Nalla Kader was not at all a skilled cook,but back at home there as a young boy,he had always watched and admired his mothers skillful cooking habits.In the process,he had picked some bits and pieces of ideas. And this! little knowledge and understanding in cooking that was enshrined in his mind,came in handy,and he was able to prepare and sell tasty and delicious varieties of curries. And as word of mouth spread the business soon flourished and people from far and near came to patronise this eating place. To meet the growing demand,Mr.Nalla Kader started to employ more workers and many of those were his own relatives,who were abto to lend a helping hand in the running of the business. Mr.Nalla Kader passed away in the year 1927,and his only son,Mr.Muhammad started to helm the business,and made alot of improvements to keep pace with time.The business soared to greater heights. A decade later,Mr Muhammad Three Sons took control of the restaurants and during their period it saw continued brisk business,Special orders were pouring in from many destination and various government organisations. It was during this time that the war started and hell broke loose whn the place was bombed by the invading forces. The Japanese pilots mistook a row of nealthy stationed hand-pulled rickshaws,that were used to transport goods,as cannons and started to spray the area with the destructive arsenals,However,Hameediyah Restaurant emerged unsealed from the bombings and was able to resume business as usual. Mr Abu Baker,a grand-son of Mr.Muhammad.took charge of the business after the war,who later passed it to his relative,Mr.Abdul Sukkoor. Today,Hameediyah Restaurant is a household name not only in penang but also in many other areas surrounding the island.And to a larger extent it is also known to many people in other states of the peninsula. Currently,Mr.Abdul Sukkoor's two sons,the elder namely Mr.Seeni Pakir,And the younger Mr.Syed Ibrahim,who themselves are excellent cooks,are now the main players,and are solely responsible for the day to day running of the restaurant. Other family members and closely-nit relatives are also in the workforce,together with some well trained chefs and others.who have been with the company for decades,The restaurant has been in existence for more than a century now
Two branches of this hundred year old eating paradise are in operation,one at relau and the other at jelutong,both in penang island. There is a dream and that dream would be that-in the foreseable future,we will have the opportunity to establish one or many fastfood type outlets to promote halal food overseas. And it has also come to stay deep in our thoughts,that building of several storeys is errected on the plot of land where the present century old shop stands.And if this comes into reality,an ultra-modern space age restaurants should exist in two floors.Another floor will be made into an internet cafe to cater to the needs of the IT covering people of the area.The rest of floors shall be turned into a hotel
God willing,we hope these thoughts will materialise and the dream will be accompolished.
