- OK, spill the tea!
Tell me what's up.
- My, sure.
I'm Nicole Wilhelm, your Bay Area host
for "5 Buck Lunch."
Having lived in the Bay Area my whole life, some would
call me a unicorn.
As a real native should, I've got all the Bay Area spots for
cheap eats.
Let me take you on a magical journey from hangry to happy,
for five bucks or less.
When you come to SF, you have to stop by San Francisco's
Chinatown, the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and
the oldest Chinatown in northern America.
Chinatown is rich in culture and in food.
I know just the right spot for some fantastic barbecue pork
rice noodle rolls.
Now let's stop talking and get some of these delicious
five buck bites.
We're at Sam Wo's Restaurant, one of the oldest
restaurants in San Francisco's Chinatown.
- Sam Wo built the restaurant shortly after the
big one, the 1906 earthquake, but he didn't let that
shake him.
Even back in the day he was known for his cheap,
barbecue pork rice noodle rolls.
Let's go eat!
What do you like about working here?
- I really enjoy, like, the customer service we have.
- People come from very far away, all the way
from like, Germany, as well as those from, say, the
mainland China and to talk with them
is very, very interesting.
- How long have you been coming?
- Oh, I've been coming since I was a child.
Now, we're talking decades.
- Why do you keep coming back?
- The dishes are still as they used to be,
the rice porridge,
the rice noodle rolls...
- What's your favorite dish to get here?
- Honestly, this is my first time here and I
only got one dish, so I can say that the preserved
egg porridge was pretty good.
- So since this is your first time, how'd you
hear about Sam Wo?
- They said it was one of the oldest Chinese restaurants,
if not the oldest.
- Yeah, it is the oldest in town.
- And I'm sure you eat here all the time,
what is your go-to dish?
- My go-to dish is besides the barbecue
pork rice noodle rolls,
I definitely do like our duck fried rice,
as well as our duck dishes in general.
- It is not the roast duck that you would see at
typical Chinese restaurants,
we actually kind of boil and steam that here, and that
actually just gives it a different texture and different
taste, and I really do like that.
- I always like to do a happy dance after I eat food,
do you have a happy dance that you do?
- Woo, I love it!
- Woo!
- So tell me a little bit about your restaurant.
- We've been around for over a hundred years.
- What would you suggest for me to order?
- A couple of things that are like, house specials,
House Chow Fun is one of them,
so that's a little bit of everything,
so you've got all your meats in it.
So you've got shrimp, barbecue pork, beef, bok choy,
and it's just, like, stir-fried in
a rice noodle.
And our second one, a good hungover food is
the scrambled eggs with shrimp over rice.
It's topped with oyster sauce, with some green scallions
on top and it's one of my favorites.
I swear, I've just been eating that like two days in
a row.
- Have you been drinking?
- Secretly, yes.
- And now, if I only have five bucks for lunch, what
would you recommend on the menu?
- The barbecue pork rice noodle roll.
- The barbecue pork noodle roll is the classic
dish that everyone comes here for.
- I would love to get the barbecue pork rice
noodle roll.
- Yes, thank you.
- Thank you.
- No problem, and another question for you,
do you want any mustard on the side?
- Yes!
- Hot mustard.
- Yes.
- OK, it's gonna make you cry.
- I feel like crying today.
- Yes, and that is going to make you cry.
- Thank you, therapist slash restaurant owner, I love it.
- I'm a mom, so everything...
- I'm a mom too.
- Oh, awesome.
- Let's check this OG dish out.
- You see how the noodle sheet hugs the
barbecue pork oh-so nicely with the fresh cilantro?
- I'm gonna dip it in a little bit of hot mustard...
That's really good.
- You can instantly taste how flavorful the
cilantro is, and the shredded barbecue gives you
that salty flavor.
Imma have to take another bite.
I also really love the texture of the rice noodle roll.
- And is there onions and a little bit of egg?
I taste that too.
Oh, but remember, I'm a lady in the streets, but I still am a
girl who likes to eat.
So you're gonna have to leave me alone with this bad boy
so I can really get down.
- It's my honorable mention,
the scrambled egg over rice and shrimp.
If you have a couple more bucks than I have, then I would
go with this dish.
It is delish!
Talk to you soon!
- So this is the end of the episode.
Remember to subscribe, comment, like and share.
And if you have any go-to places for five buck lunch,
put it in the comments below, and if you haven't already,
check out the previous episode for the best, cheapest
Chinese food in New York's Chinatown.
Rock, paper, deuces.