Yum Yum Soup Soup or Yum Yum Sup Sup

I got a Yum Yum Sup Sup from eastcoastlife. Chey! It's not something edible (like some kind of homemade soup?) she Fedex-ed to me. It's a food meme to list top 5 favorite places to eat at my location. In other words, homework!

Uh-oh, I'm not doing entire justice to Californian cuisine here. First, hardly dine-out. Second, would always prefer an Asian meal to a Western one, not because we are not accustomed to Western food, but simply because our taste buds are constantly lusting for those Southeast Asian spices and flavor that we grew up with. Whatever that is, my favorite places may not reflect California's overall food culture, and thus not very well-represented.

California's substantial Chinese American communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County include (take a deep inhale...) Korean American, Japanese American, Cambodian American, Vietnamese American, Thai American, Indian American, Filipino American, Pakistani American, Persian American, Armenian American, and Arab American (exhale....) etc etc.

We are in luck! It's not that difficult to get Asian food within our vicinity (Silicon Valley, Bay Area) afterall. Only a matter of authenticity. Not sure if these are my FAVORITES but these five eateries are generally economical and has gained an "above average" rating in terms of taste and flavor. In other words, these are eateries that we would return for a second, third or n^th bite. In S'porean colloquialism (with Singlish) - cheap and good LAH!

1. Yum Cha! Dim Sum! It's odd but we have dim sum here more frequently than in Singapore. That's because we cannot get Yong Tau Foo, Prawn Mee, Economy Bee Hoon, and Chai Tow Kway - Fried Carrot Cake for breakfast (breakfast means 7am!).

Here, we can only wait till 10am or 11am(most of the times-typical opening hours) and it's usually a brunch dim-sum at either Hong Kong Saigon Restaurant, or Bamboo Garden, both at Sunnyvale.

2. A good ol' bowl of noodle soup at either Pho Nam Restaurant at Sunnyvale with that comforting and richly seasoned beef broth ladled over rice noodles and thinly sliced flank beef; or at New Tung Kee for that close-to-home kway teow teng ~rice noodle soup with pork and chicken slices, meatballs, then garnished with spring onions and tung chai (is that salty Chinese cabbage?)

3. I'm for Indian food in California. How does tandoori chicken, naan, goat curry sound? Turmeric Restaurant offers lunch buffet ($10.95 per person; ~$11.80 adding tax) with a spread of appetizers and entrees. We love dipping those naan in the curries. The curries and tandoori chicken goes well with the saffron rice too. I'm salivating again!

4. Thai Basil for Thai food. Voted "Best Thai Restaurant in Silicon Valley" (but only in 2003). What happened in 2004, 2005, 2006? We are already in 2007! Love their Thai curries - traditional green curry, thai basil chicken, and beef curry. Am salivating again. It's the spice's and chilli's fault, not mine!

5. Fast food! Or rather burgers! More like cheeseburgers! The classic kind - "...two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun..." (did you just hum to THAT tune?). In-N-Out burgers are more juicilicious than THAT. St. Johns classic cheeseburgers is a new found favourite too, as long as they continue to offer 1/2 price burgers during Saturdays.

Since I've had the privilege and honor, to have some readers based in other parts of the world, I would love to know their top 5 favorite food hunts too (excluding the best one at home, of course!). So the next time I'm visiting you at your location, I'll be eating AT YOUR AREA!

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the state and country you’re in

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
eastcoastlife (East Coast, Singapore)
teczcape - an escape to food (California, USA)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

3. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states)...and let them know they’ve been tagged.

I tagged...

Sara(Alberta, Canada)
Freya and Paul(Essex, Great Britain)
Wok and Spoon(Paris, France)
Amy (Seattle, Washington)
Passionate Eater (San Francisco, Californa)

[...simply because I... would love to tour Canada someday and would love to know more about their food, and culture;... need to rekindle my love for the English Lake Districk and regain my memory on cuisines in UK;...know more about France(there's more to french onion soup and croque-monsieur) despite my not-so-good impression of Paris after 2days;...oh, Seattle because I would like to visit the upper Northwest too;...and I really think you would get better picture of California cuisine from...she who eats passionately in San Francisco and around.]

After taking a look at the various cuisines - from Mexican to Cuban, Wandering Chopsticks has been recently enjoying, could I just add you in, to share with us 5 favourite places to eat at you area ? Let me take a peek at SoCal's food, to make sure I hunt down the best food when I visit.

So, fellow foodies I've just tagged, would be great if we could learn from you, more about food, cuisines and culture all around the world. You could do this meme at your comfort pace but do let the joy of eating carry on. Thanks! *munching...munching...munching*