7 Best (Free!) Foodie Apps
Credit: Mermaid Oyster Bar
Mobile phone apps are both wonderfully omnipresent and wonderfully inexpensive these days, but it can be tricky to know which are time-savers and which will waste time. Here are several of our favorite food apps, all of which are free, to help you navigate the fishmonger’s counter, order the tastiest dish at a hot new restaurant, and keep those 2014 resolutions, among other things.
The seafood counter at your local fish shop or grocery store can be an overwhelming place if you care about sustainability. That halibut looks fresh, but didn’t you read something about over-fishing of Atlantic halibut (yes)? And then there are those enormously long menus at sushi places. Is it bluefin tuna that’s endangered? (Yep.) We plucked these answers from the Monterey Bay aquarium’s Seafood Watch app, which uses a color-coded system to indicate which breeds are overfished and recommends similar fish in their places.
2. Fooducate
Keep health-minded New Year’s resolutions more easily with this barcode-scanning app. It lets you know how many calories are in a packaged food, what constitutes a serving size, and gives you a letter grade for your choice (our peanut oil got a C-minus, and Italian tuna packed in oil got a B). The downsides? First, it’s addictive to scan everything in your pantry, and an obsessive person could lose an entire day at the grocery store to this app. Second, the database isn’t comprehensive: a tasty single-varietal honey didn’t scan. But it’s a good start, and the design is pleasant.
3. Foursquare
Foursquare built its success on the notion of enhanced serendipity—people can “check in” at bars and restaurants, and let friends know where they are—but its tailored restaurant and bar recommendations are fantastic. When you’re out at a restaurant, the tips load quickly on your phone, so you know to order the $8 salt cod appetizer everyone raves about instead of the $8 roast squash appetizer that’s gotten mixed reviews. Also, the app allows you to keep “To Do” lists of places and dishes you’d like to try.
4. Oysterpedia
The next time you’re dining at a place with a terrifyingly long list of oysters, just duck out to the powder room, check Oysterpedia, and come back to the table prepared to talk about brininess, cucumber notes, and cup size like a pro. This app breaks down North American oyster populations by East Coast and West Coast origin, with details on many popular ones. If you loathe large oysters but love tiny ones, the app will let you know before you order that Maine’s Pemaquid is a “large/extra large” oyster, but that Washington State’s Hama Hama will be petite and firm, with “a mild finish.”
5. Evernote
There are number of sticky note apps out there for cell phones, but Evernote is one of the best-looking. Start running lists of ingredients you need to pick up at the grocery store, another list of the restaurants you want to try, and yet another list of what you need from the specialty Italian place; Evernote can accommodate all of these lists, and doesn’t look as cluttered as all the post-it notes you have stuck around your work desk in real life.
6. Epicurious
An oldie but a goodie, Epicurious has long been one of our go-to recipe sites online, and their app is a charmer, too. Say you have an abundance of apples, for example. Type in the ingredient and the meal (say, brunch), and Epi will point you to recipe options from Stuffed French Toast with Caramelized Apples to French Apple Turnovers. And they all have those Epi fork ratings.
7. OpenTable
Nowadays one need never call the hot restaurant of the moment only to sit on hold for an eternity…and eventually learn that there are no tables available anyway. OpenTable’s app makes it easier to know a) if a table is open and b) if not, what other options are highly-rated and close by. Its layout is clean and super-modern, including a photo of many restaurants (so you know what sort of vibe you’re in for), and it’s easier to navigate than OT’s website, to boot.
