Starting from scratch: Peking Wok in Bonsall

By: RUTH MARVIN WEBSTER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 17, 2007 5:40 PM PST ∞

Jane and Peter Sam have had to start life over more than once.

The first time was when they fled Vietnam in 1975. The second was in Vista in 1989, when they opened a restaurant that burned down six years later.

They're hoping their newly opened restaurant in Bonsall, Peking Wok, will be their last one.

The couple, who met in Saigon where they both worked as journalists for a Chinese newspaper, bought two fishing boats and escaped in the dead of night after the fall of Saigon in 1975. One boat was captured and sent back, but the one with the Sams and their two children, both under 18 months, was rescued by a ship in the Indian Ocean. After two years in Madras, India, the family was able to emigrate to Connecticut, then to Los Angeles and Orange County before coming to San Diego.

"I kept looking for my spot," said Jane Sam.

Learning first to cook from books and only as a hobby, Peter opened the family's first Chinese restaurant, called Sam's Place, in Laguna Beach. Though the enterprise was successful, the couple decided to move south in hopes of limiting their overhead.

In 1989, the family moved to Vista where they opened the highly successful Peking Wok until, six years later, an electrical fire damaged the strip mall that hosted the restaurant. "It was big news in the community," said Jane, adding they were able to recoup only insurance money for inventory before the landlord terminated their lease. "We lost everything."

For more than a year after the fire, the couple debated what course to take before being approached by the property manager of the River Village in Bonsall who had heard their story and offered them a reasonable lease. "We are very thankful," said Jane Sam. "It is very well managed, and we are happy here. Bonsall is a well-kept secret. I was looking for a place to retire, and it's so beautiful here."

The Sams opened their new Peking Wok, the only Chinese restaurant in town, in July. The interior is beautifully decorated in earth tones, with rich wood furnishings. The restaurant, open for lunch and dinner six days a week, already has a loyal clientele.

"We have a following from Vista and even some from Laguna Beach," Jane said. "We even have customers from Los Angeles who say they can't find as good Chinese food there."

The menu is a mixture of what Jane calls professional and homestyle cooking. "You can't find similar food anywhere," she said. Besides familiar fare such as sweet and sour, kung pao and mu shu dishes, the Wok offers Mongolian beef, a variety of sauteed mixed vegetables and/or tofu, Chinese soups and pot stickers.

The Sams have added many specialty dishes to the Vista menu. "For the year and a half we were closed, we were thinking of new dishes," said Sam Sam, the couple's eldest son. "We would talk about food and what would taste good and try other restaurants, especially Chinese ones."

Speciality items on the back of the menu are popular and carry an explanation as they have been developed by the chef. Peter's Chicken 38, which is new, is described on the menu as diced chicken with a light, crisp coating, tossed with a pinch of scallions and Peter's original sauce ($13). Also popular is the Walnut Shrimp ---- crispy shrimp with candied walnuts in the chef's secret wasabi honey sauce ($17). Black Pepper Scallops are sauteed in a zesty black peppercorn sauce over a bed of baby bok choy ($18).

Throughout all of their hardships and setbacks, the Sams have never lost their optimism. "Bad things happen, but they always end in good things," said Jane. "If you're willing to work hard, you will have good fortune."

-- Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com.

PEKING WOK

WHAT: Peking Wok

WHERE: 5256 S. Mission Road, Suite 303, Bonsall

CALL: (760) 724-8078; www.pekingwokbonsall.com

HOURS: 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday; open till 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Monday.

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