Growing up, Carmen Pan said she embodied the popular meme of children growing up in their immigrant family’s restaurant. Tucked away at a back corner table on her iPad or completing homework, Pan spent her childhood in her parents’ longstanding Chinatown restaurant, Mekong.
Now a third-year computer science student at Carleton University, Pan is balancing algorithms with appetizers after launching her takeout business Mekong Express — MKE for short — in late January.
Similar to Uber Eats, customers order through a Google Form on MKE’s Instagram page Monday through Thursday, selecting the meal, soup and side of their choice before picking their order up at 4 p.m. from Pan on campus.
Operating out of Mekong – which has been open for more than 45 years — she said she hopes to bring her family’s culinary legacy to the Carleton community and provide affordable portions of the hearty meals she grew up loving.
“I come from a family with two chefs, so I’m grateful all the food I eat is top quality and delicious,” Pan said, adding MKE’s meals are ones she eats every week at home.
Pan said the inspiration for the business came from “stalking” the university’s subreddit, where she stumbled across a thread of posters mourning the loss of an on-campus Chinese restaurant shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unsure whether a tech career is her calling, Pan decided to bridge the gap between her family’s kitchen and the university’s “lack of food options.”
“Carleton’s food is very questionable, especially for the people who have to suffer with the [dining hall],'” she said, noting she’s heard complaints from students about its quality. “My goal is to make sure there’s enough food for an entire meal – people tell me it’s like two meals for them.”
MKE’s weekly rotating menu is a curated selection of Mekong’s fan favourites. Pan’s father, who arrived in Toronto from China’s Guangdong province in the 1980s, worked his way up from waiter to chef in a local restaurant.
In the early 2000s, he moved to Ottawa and began working in Mekong’s kitchen. In 2018, he and Pan’s mother purchased Mekong.
Pan said the dishes are prepared in-house with fresh produce. Ingredients are tossed in a roaring wok with seasonings like ginger, garlic, dried peppers, MSG and soy sauce, then stir-fried for maximum flavour.
Pan’s father currently cooks the food for MKE, then Pan and her mother package and portion each meal for Carleton customers.
On Sundays, Pan designs and posts a menu — which also features vegan and halal options — on her Instagram page. Meals cost around $15.
Pan’s pricing is inexpensive compared to other options in the area, according to second-year commerce student Juneau Li.
“If I was to get a takeout similar to this, it would be $27 with Uber — at least,” Li said. After trying the Hunan chili beef and the chicken corn soup on Pan’s first day of business, he said he was hooked.
Li, who lives in residence and eats at the dining hall daily, said he felt the university’s variety had recently improved but“still pretty hit or miss.”
He went back to MKE, trying the BBQ pork and duck special for students. His only suggestion was to add more greens to the plate.
For Sam Koroma, a recent graduate of the global and international studies program Campus Card Office staffer, MKE is a welcome relief.
After ordering the beef with black bean sauce, Koroma said she enjoyed the tenderness of the meat and hints of ginger in the mixed vegetables.
“Honestly, it felt like I was eating it from a restaurant,” she said, adding that MKE offered better quality and quantity for its price.
Koroma ended up recommending and sharing some of her meal with her coworkers, who said they plan on ordering from MKE in the future themselves.
MKE has also become a lifeline for international students, Pan said.
“A lot of my clientele are Chinese international students who can’t find good food around Carleton,” Pan said. “It brings them home — especially traditional meals like the roast duck – and a sense they can still have good food in Ottawa.”
Pan added the feedback she has received has been totally positive.
“I feel really accomplished, like I’m bringing good food to everyone,” Pan said, noting one customer had ordered four times from her during her first two weeks of business.
“It’s kind of in my culture to bring good food to [people].”
Pan’s work is more than a side hustle.
She is acutely aware of and saddened by the trend of traditional restaurants closing as the older generation retires. In 2024, Chinatown’s family-owned 40-year staple, Yangtze Restaurant, shut its doors as its owners retired.
“There’s a lot of children of immigrants like me whose parents [own] a restaurant. Slowly, these types of (generational) restaurants are disappearing,” Pan said. “The chefs are getting old and children are all going on to ‘bigger and better’ things. No one really wants to do the restaurant business anymore.”
The decline of generational restaurants, leads to many children of immigrant parents not being able to cook their family’s style of food, Pan said.
By expanding her parents’ recipes beyond Mekong’s doors, Pan hopes to carry on their business and ensure its flavours don’t vanish — something her parents are happy to see her branch into.
MKE is on a hiatus as Pan travels but is expected to return on March 2. Pan hopes customers will reach out if they have any menu suggestions they’d like to see.
“In the future, I don’t know what I’ll do,” Pan said, “but definitely continuing to learn my dad and mom’s cooking – the recipes — is a big part of it.”
Featured image by Minna Glendinning/the Charlatan
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