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food posts

Filed under: Finance, Kids, iPhone

Don't forget to feed your kids during the economic downturn -- use this iPhone app!!

I'm not a parent, nor am I kid -- but that doesn't prevent me from appreciating a totally neat iPhone app called 'Kids Eat For' (I guess the domain with 'free' on the end was already taken?)

Basically -- and this is about as basic as apps get -- this app just shows you where the nearest restaurant with a kids-eat-for-free deal. The developers say that the database is kept up to date, with new deals added daily and expired deals removed -- so you don't have to have one of those embarrassing moments when it comes to paying the bill... and you actually have to pay for your kids. Oops.

I guess you'd be able to trade in your iPhone to pay the bill, if it came to that.

Or, wait a second... if you didn't splurge and buy an iPhone in the first place, maybe you could afford to feed your kids proper home-cooked food instead, rather than going out and gorging on crappy ribs and all-you-can-eat wings at the local Armadillo Willy's (what on earth is that?)

At just $3 -- and yes, this is sadly only for restaurants in the USA (at the moment!) -- Kids Eat For must surely be a must-have for all parents. Well, parents with iPhones.

Filed under: iPhone, Search

Find local food in season with the Locavore iPhone app

There are lots of iPhone apps that help you find nearby places to eat or shop, but Locavore offers a totally different twist. It tells you which foods are in season and available locally, and also helps you find farmers' markets where you can pick them up. It also links to information and recipes for each of the ingredients in its database.

The search is by state, so some of the markets that come up might not be as close as you'd like. On the plus side, Locavore does use the iPhone's location features to show the closest markets first. If you're a serious foodie, Locavore looks like the app you want in your pocket when you plan a shopping trip. The pricetag is a reasonable $3.

UrbanSpoon releases iPhone-native restaurant finder

One of the two big differences in the new iPhone 3G is the included GPS technology. Restaurant locator/review site UrbanSpoon knows this very well, and they've taken advantage of the GPS with an iPhone native app for UrbanSpoon. Without even having to tell it, it knows where you are, it knows where restaurants are, and it's ready to get food into your mouth.

It gets more fun than that, though: you can actually shake your iPhone like a Magic 8-Ball to get a random recommendation near you. This is great if you're really hungry, don't care where you eat, or just like trying new places. An iPhone native app gives UrbanSpoon a leg up on other review sites like Yelp (which we also find very useful!) by making its information more easily portable. Look for it in July, when Apple launches the iPhone app store.

[via MG Siegler at VentureBeat]

Filed under: Business, Fun, Internet, Web services

Decide where to eat tonight with BooRah

BooRah searches the web for mentions of restaurants in blogs and websites and analyzes the languages in the post to determine whether the reviewer was giving the restaurant a thumbs down (boo) or a thumbs up (Rah). The amount of Boo's and Rah's a restaurant gets are tallied up on the site and then the restaurant is given an overall score. BooRah users can add their own tags to a particular restaurants page, and can weigh in by giving a particular place a Boo or Rah directly on the site.

Currently the service is limited to just 20 large metro areas, with more expected to be rolled out later on. If you're fortunate enough to live in one of those areas you can search for restaurants by your particular neighborhood, and sign up for an RSS feed for your area so you always know about the latest place in town.

[via EmilyChang]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

CookThink: Discover recipes based on cravings

CookThink
Ever have a craving for fish, but no recipe handy for turning your craving into dinner? CookThink can help. Well, almost. The idea is that you enter an ingredient, dish, cuisines, or other keyword and CookThink will find an appropriate recipe, some cooking tips, and a list of alternate recipes that might meet your needs.

As a keyword/tag based recipe finder, CookThink is excellent. But it's a bit disingenuous to say that you can really find recipes that meet your cravings. Because honestly, when was the last time you found any recipe online that didn't require running out and picking up a few extra ingredients? And if you've got a craving for miso soup, but no miso paste in the house, there's a pretty good chance your craving will have passed by the time you get back from the grocery store.

But CookThink is still a great site. When you enter your first word, a tag cloud pops up suggesting related terms. Or you can just click the ingredient, dish, cuisine, and mood buttons for a list of suggested tags. Each recipe has an attractive photo and list of other dishes that would compliment the meal.

[via AppScout]

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

Open Source Food: a social network for food lovers


MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are great if you're looking for general interest social networking. But Open Source Food shows that sometimes niche is where it's at.

Open Source Food is a community site for food lovers and cooks, both amateur and professional. If you're looking for a little inspiration, you can browse through the beautifully photographed images or search the site for recipes. It's a little baffling that you have to click on the "food" tab to get a search bar, but since the site is as focused on community as it is on food, maybe that makes some sense.

Registered users can upload images and recipes, comment on others' recipes, ask questions, or add suggestions. Open Source Food is like a Web 2.0 cookbook, and we mean that in the best possible way.

[via AppScout]

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Video, News, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Yahoo!, Freeware

Yahoo launches their food site

Yahoo Food
That's right, Yahoo now has their brand spankin' new food site up with a recipe search, restaurants, celebrity appearances, videos, and segments of the quintessential Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart. One feature I like is the "Recent Activity" area that will keep track of the latest things you've searched for, much like Amazon's "the page you made" feature. Yahoo Answers is even in on the new food fun with food questions and answers. The site's content doesn't interest me much, besides the technology in use here, but my wife will love it. My wife will download about half the recipes and make me eat most of them so I don't really have a choice, but perhaps you can save yourself if you hurry, run!

P.S. For the record, my wife is an amazing cook (and she made me say that, or she says I don't get dinner). Cheers!

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Time-Wasters

Sushi Samurai - Today's Time Waster

Sushi SamuraiSushi Samurai is a cute Flash remake of arcade classic BurgerTime, except (in case you hadn't guessed) with sushi. If you ever played BurgerTime you'll pick up Sushi Samurai in no time, but in case you're unfamiliar here's how it goes down: You control a little samurai who must walk across the sushi ingredients to make them fall into the dishes below. However, you're hindered by evil food-themed enemies including tofu, radishes, and the evil puffer fish. You can shoot wasabi to immobilize the enemies and you can pick up other bonuses like soy sauce (for extra lives) and miso soup (which freezes all enemies). Sushi Samurai is just as fun as its predecessor, and even a little more forgiving, and its controls are solid and the graphics (in particular the enemies) are adorable.

Filed under: Fun, Hardware

Engadget has crazy fans who bake

Engadget Alienware cakeI am both delighted and alarmed by the winners of Engadget's birthday cake contest. In case you hadn't heard, Engadget has been celebrating its 2nd birthday and ran a contest for the prize was a really sweet Alienware PC. The challenge was to bake the coolest gadget-themed birthday cake. I knew they'd get a lot of entries, but I had no idea the lengths Engadget's crazy readers would go to. I don't want to spoil it for you, but the grand prize winner has a screen. That works. Now I'm hungry for cake.

Filed under: News

Slashfood joins the Weblogs, Inc. family

SlashfoodPlease help us welcome Weblogs, Inc.'s newest blog, Slashfood, to our big family. Slashfood, as perhaps you've already guessed, is a blog for those who love food, be it eating, preparing, having it prepared for you, or just wandering the aisles of the grocery store, dizzy with awe. They're off to a great start, with posts like Top 25 food hacks, The Cookie Sutra, and Spaghetti Eating 101. And, if you're a foodie yourself and can write a blog post, they're looking for bloggers to join their team.

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Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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