Help in my quest to collect the take-out menus from every Chinese restaurant in the USA! 

Crazy, I know, but even 10% of them would make an enormous stack, physically conveying the impact of Chinese restaurants as a collective phenomenon in this country. 

Wherever you go*, any Chinese restaurant you see, please pick up a menu for me.

Mail them to:

Indigo Som
P. O. Box 5053
Berkeley CA 94705

*The only limitation: foreign menus are fun & interesting, so I welcome those too, but please no menus from countries where most of the restaurants & most of the people are Chinese. Like China... just leave those menus alone. Thanks!

menu FAQs

Are you still collecting menus? If you’re reading this, then I am still collecting menus! Please send them! It’s going to take a long, long time to get even close to having most of them.

How many menus do you have now? I don’t know, because I don’t keep a running tally. As of 2015, they take up about the space of 3 file boxes. (Is that vague enough?) I have a looong way to go....

How many people have sent menus? I’m not keeping count of that either. More than I can send thank you notes to, but please know I appreciate every single menu!

Is it okay if the menu is stained/rolled/written on/folded/spindled/mutilated? Yes. I think the only reason I wouldn’t want it is if it’s really nasty &/or mostly illegible.

Do you still need menus from [your state]? Yes! I am very far from reaching saturation levels for any state. Like I said, it’s gonna take a while. So please send them! As of spring 2015, I still have no menus at all from Kentucky, Delaware, Utah, West Virginia, Nebraska, or South Dakota.

How about menus from pan-Asian restaurants, or Chinese & Japanese restaurants, do you want those too? Yes! Chinese food & donuts, Chinese food & Hofbrau, they all count!

What about old or vintage menus? Yes, please, those are good too. It would be helpful, but not necessary, if you could include a note about how old it is.

Basically, when in doubt: send me the menu! Thank you!