I started working at my dad’s Chinese restaurant, Eggrolls By Keng, and jade store, Jade By Keng, in 1976 when I was 8 years old. Even though I barely stood over the counter, my mother said I had a knack for marketing and customer service. Next door was a Mexican jewelry store with beautiful silver buckles and turquoise earrings. We played with their kids and my mom ended up becoming best friends with Veronica and John. Ahead of the trend, both stores ended up closing after several years.
Eggrolls By Keng was the first Chinese restaurant in a mall (pre-Food Court era) and the only one with a steam table! My dad really was before his time and his business model, reputation and success are heralded by Chinese business owners in Atlanta even today. Unlike many other immigrants who went into the food business full-time, my dad already had his own career as an engineering consultant. He opened the restaurant and jewelry store so that my relatives could come over to the U.S. and have work.
Like the restaurant’s name, we served fresh, handmade eggrolls and my dad’s own sweet tea recipe. Before we opened, other restaurants served eggrolls that were mass-produced and frozen with stringy cabbage and colored meat bits —ugh! People hiked across the mall for our sweet tea and eggrolls! Even my dad, who preferred BK Whoppers, enjoyed eating our fresh eggrolls.
My aunt made our eggrolls by hand and with fresh ingredients. I was only eight so I got drinks and took money. I was queen of the Coke machine and stood on a beer box to reach the cash register. Some customers would see me and hesitate. After a while, regular customers got to know me and would even tip me! I also helped in the kitchen, making ground beef for the eggrolls in an industrial meat grinder and de-leafing the celery. My sisters worked there after school. To this day, my sister says she can’t eat snow peas because of the “trauma” of “shucking 50 lbs of snow peas” for hours. My mom taught school and came out on the weekends. I missed some football games on Saturday nights, but most of the time, it was interesting and I got paid.
As I got older, I realized how hard the restaurant business was. The hours were long and the work was not glamorous. Even though I worked more than most of my friends, my parents and sisters put in double shifts in the early years. And we had servers and cooks who worked every day. It took a toll on our family life and on my parent’s marriage. At the same time, it taught me the value of work and our sacrifices and it’s success laid the foundation for our college tuitions and eventually, a suburban, middle class life.
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