Finding a restaurant that welcomes, and doesn’t just grudgingly accommodate, the food preferences of vegan diners isn’t easy. Happily, Mayan Kitchen in Sunnyvale combines Chef Katie Voong’s desire to eat healthier with the amazing flavors of her Asian roots and those of the Yucatan.
It’s an unusual and remarkably successful combination that was birthed out of two existential challenges: one that predated her birth in Hong Kong to Vietnamese/Chinese refugees of the Vietnam War, and the other that virtually shut down the world economy. We’re talking about the Vietnam War and the Covid pandemic.
“Just a few years ago I was gonna close the doors,” says Voong, who had opened her first restaurant, Ktea Café, in 2018, serving a variety of Chinese street foods. Demand for catering services expanded into Ktea Caters, and just prior to Covid, she was busily serving all the usual corporate clients, from Cisco to Google. She hired Chef Ed Correa to assist as the food grew in popularity.
Healthier Options
Then everything came to a halt. She and Correa, who hails from the Yucatan, knew they had to do something different. “I used the downtime to make better choices,” says Voong. “I am vegetarian and he is Mayan and we married our concepts together. We realized that people wanted to eat healthier.”
The two worked on their menus and decided to pivot the Mayan concept to the front of the house while keeping Ktea café going. Voong still operates Ktea as an online-only business with pickup and delivery, a challenge that her design partner, Deborah Armstrong of DBA Visual Team, met handily.
“People were always trying to support us. I could not let this go! Even if it meant running two operations at once. Honestly, we were in survival mode.”
Somehow, she survived. “I am so blessed and I really don’t know how I did it,” Voong says. “It was so hard, even painting the walls, as I could find no laborers. I used recycled lumber and repurposed other restaurant booths. Recycling and upcycling is my habit! I have T-shirts I have had for years. I like to keep it humble. There is no need to waste!”
The portion sizes are plenty big to satisfy, but small enough to encourage curiosity. “We use no filler food,” says Voong. “You are throwing away your profit! I use the whole lemon. Zero waste makes a lot of sense, as I would rather have less trash to pay to be hauled away!” Her advice to restaurants and home chefs is to buy only what you need.
Flavors of the Yucatan
The Mayan cooking style uses no lard. Instead, fresh oranges and habanero are used for marinating. Citrus and a variety of chiles add flavor in vegan dishes like spiced cauliflower, eggplant rolls and pumpkin seed salsa pesto served with radishes and three different tortilla chips: crunchy yellow corn, hearty blue corn and spicy red achiote. Voong points out that radishes are very good for you.
“There are lots of people with allergies in the Bay Area,” says Voong, pointing to her own son, who suffered from rashes and eczema for years. Turns out he has gluten allergies.
“We know we can make food flavorful with natural ingredients and that’s what we focus on. So far it has been wonderful,” Voong says.
Yucatan staples like cochinita, slow corked pork in plantain leaves, and pollo pibil, achiote grilled chicken, are flavored with roasted tomato salsa, pickled red onions (pickled in sour orange, not vinegar) and micro cilantro. Fried bao bun combines many cultures with cochinita, pickled onions, cilantro, cheese sauce and mayo. The Cochinita Salbut—which tops a fluffy handmade corn tortilla with pork, black bean puree, cabbage, pickled onions, homemade salsa verde and cotija cheese—is a tasty twist on what you might think of as a glorified taco.
Call it what you will. Both Voong and Correa love the chemistry and the artistry of cooking, and are always looking for novel ways to combine vegetables and spices to elevate vegan food.
“There are not many Mayan or vegan restaurants,” Voong says. At the heart of the cuisine is healthy eating. She believes that food is medicine.
Embracing Hard Work
Although having a small restaurant as a single mom means she has very little family time, she feels she is setting an example of resilience and the success that comes from hard work.
“The way I grew up, not being privileged, you learned to earn and save,” Voong says. “My dad worked in Chinese restaurants, and my mom stayed at home with me and my many siblings. We got so much love from my mom! My dad did the cooking. We didn’t have much, but it was delicious. He worked so hard, but he gave me $20 each week: that was so much money for back then!! It made me want to give back more.”
All that hard work has garnered her a chance to participate in the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium as one of only 200 applicants out of thousands. She hopes to be serving Mayan cuisine, including a vegan option, from a food truck or in the VIP section.
Dreaming big has certainly paid off. She was one of the suppliers at the SAP Center food court, and says it felt great to have the business name on the big screen. She credits her tight working relationship with Correa and Armstrong for their success.
“I follow my heart and I’m doing what I love,” Voong says. “Truthfully, I want to promote this concept of healthy eating. I must be doing something right! Every year, I get a different reward.”
Mayan Kitchen is open for lunch Tue-Fri 11:30am-2pm and Sat-Sun 11:30am-2:30pm and for dinner Tue-Sun 5-8:45pm. 139 S Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale. 650.305.6595. mayankitchenfood.com
