Hameediyah Restaurant, Campbell Street

Hameediyah Restaurant (25 September 2016)

Hameediyah Restaurant is the grand daddy of Penang Indian Muslim restaurants. It has been around since the ~~1970s~~. Correction, I've known Hameediyah since the 1970s, when I was big enough to be aware of things, but now I learn that Hameediyah has been around since 1907, and is the oldest nasi kandar in Malaysia, ergo, in Penang. The restaurant has survived two world wars, and while later nasi kandar businesses got mired in family feud, Hameediyah continues to survive, intact, as a family-owned operation. The restaurant operates in two locations along Campbell Street within a stone's throw of one another, with the first occupying two adjacent shophouses, and has also opened branch outlets in Damansara and Bukit Mertajam.

This is the restaurant where I had my first murtabak and my first nasi briyani. I remember visiting Hameediyah, as a small boy, with my parents. They have a steep staircase going upstairs (which they still do), to sit in their air-conditioned area. Otherwise you can join the rest of the crowd in the hot and sweaty ground floor. But it's a lot nicer and quieter upstairs. Hameediyah has a pulley system for conveying the food to the guest upstairs.

As a small boy, I wasn't that fond of murtabak or nasi briyani. I could not understand why rice had to be cooked with "pieces of wooden flower" (cloves) and little dynamites (cardamon) that made having a meal such a distress. So that was a peek at my childhood. I still remove the cloves, cardamon and star anise from my rice today, but have since learned to enjoy murtabak and nasi briyani.

I see that Hameediyah is still operating today, I am not sure whether it is as famous and popular as it was during my childhood, as I haven't had a meal here in years. I will make a note to return to this restaurant one day with my wife, to sort of walk down memory lane.