Behind The Brand: How Nanking’s traditional Chinese origins captured Hyderabad’s appetite

Hyderabad: During the decade of the Second World War, in the 1940s, Liu, hailing from South China’s Hakka community, came to Mumbai and started a Chinese restaurant. A few years after the war was over, the restaurant shut down and Liu passed away.

With the intention to open a restaurant of his own, his young son KY Liu and daughter-in-law HS Jung came to Hyderabad in 1957. KY Liu took up a job with the one and only Chinese restaurant (now non-existent) in Park Lane in Secunderabad called Peking and worked there for eight months till he started his own restaurant in the same locality. That restaurant is Nanking.

Nanking, which even after 65 years, retained its reputation and has loyal customers spanning four generations. Most of the time, the occupancy is full and one has to wait their turn during the peak lunch and dinner hours to get a table.

Following traditions

NewsMeter spoke to its present owner 76-year-old Szeyuan Liu, a publicity-shy individual, who believes that advertisement and publicity are not required if the product is of a standard quality. After studying till Class V in Kolkata, Liu completed his schooling and college in Hyderabad and joined his parents in the restaurant business for 14 years.

Though his four other siblings migrated, Liu continued to stay in India, working hard, and looking after his father’s dream restaurant. True to his ideals, Liu stuck to the same, old authentic recipes, adequate quantity and high quality of hygienic food, which has always been a value for money.

“Just like my parents who wanted to give people value for their money, I too believe customers, who are paying from their hard-earned money, should be satisfied with the quality and quantity of food. A hygienic way of preparing the food is important. Though prices of all commodities have increased and we have to pay higher rent and hike the salaries of our staff every year, I tried not to enhance the price of food much and keep it reasonable. We stuck to the authentic menu, started by my parents. We customise and serve vegetarian, seafood, fish, chicken and pork items as per our guests’ requirements. So, one can get spicy, non-spicy, medium spicy, dry and gravy items as per their choice,” said Liu.

International appeal

At Nanking, crispy chicken, ginger prawn and ginger fish, prawn pakoras are quite popular with the guests. “These are my father’s own recipes and I also know how to cook them. We taught it to our chefs. For many decades, ours was the only stand-alone Chinese restaurant in the city and therefore, we used to get many foreign customers from various Asian countries and Europe.

At present, Nanking has four branches – the oldest one at Park Lane, another at Wellington Road, Picket, a third at Road Number 2, Banjara Hills and the latest one at AS Rao Nagar. Since 1971, it also owns a restaurant called Blue Diamond near Nizam’s College. Altogether, the restaurants have a capacity of seating around 500 guests at a time.

“Cooks, consisting mostly of locals, are trained to make authentic dishes. We have nearly 80 staff members. We try to give employment to those who come to us seeking jobs. We have employees who have been with us for 25 to 30 years,” says Liu.

“We make some ingredients like noodles, while some of the sauces are brought from the Tangra area of Kolkata, where the Chinese community has their factories. We have poultry and hatcheries too. We decorate the restaurant and try to cater to the customers’ taste,” said Liu, who along with his wife Chiu Li Mei and youngest of his three sons Liu Ku Chun, runs the business.

When asked about the reason for the popularity of Chinese food, Liu says, “Probably, people, who are used to eating traditional meals, love a variety in taste once in a while. Chinese food is also quite healthy, light, less oily and spicy since it’s mainly sauce-based rather than relying on spices and fatty oils. It can also be adapted to suit the local test buds.”