food

In-N-Out Burger's iOS app is helpful when you get that In-N-Out urge.

Lest you think I'm a health nut, subsisting on local produce and sustainable seafood, I feel the need to share my love of In-N-Out Burger with you. There was a time when I lived in California and could grab a Double-Double with little to no planning. I didn't know how good I had it. Now I live on the East Coast and must come to terms with the fact that the nearest In-N-Out is 1,529.3 miles away in Rockwall, Texas.

I found out … Read more

There is no shortage of grocery list apps and kitchen calculator apps, but here's an example of each that I think iPhone owners might find useful.

The first goes beyond simply helping you create a shopping list for your next run to the store. In addition to creating a grocery list, it also helps you schedule and plan your meals. The second app is noteworthy because it provides useful kitchen conversions and substitutions for free.

Mise En Place I have yet to find a grocery list app that is easier to use than the small pad of paper I … Read more

If you care about the health of the world's oceans, you have likely become aware in recent years of the harmful effects of overfishing. With Seafood Watch, a free iOS app, you'll have a handy pocket guide to help you find seafood that is fished or farmed using sustainable methods.

The app gets its data from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, which uses "a science-based, peer-reviewed process" to encourage "consumers and businesses to purchase seafood that is fished or farmed in ways that don't harm the environment." With the app, you can look up a particular type of fish to see if it is a Best Choice, Good Alternative, or something to Avoid. You can also look up restaurants and markets in your area that feature ocean-friendly seafood, and you can add places you've found that offer it.… Read more

This free iOS app makes discovering new recipes fun and easy.

At first blush, the Foodily iOS app appears to be a mobile Twitter-like feed for foodies. By following friends, famous chefs, and food bloggers, you get a feed of recipes, from which you can create a favorites list, comment on, or share via e-mail or Facebook. Where the app really shines, however, is with its search functionality, which helps you narrow your efforts in the vast sea of recipes online.

When you launch the app, you'll be asked to sign in via Facebook or e-mail. Choose the former, … Read more

January isn't the best month to write about a local-produce app, but given the mild winter we've had thus far in the northeast, it feels more like spring, so here goes.

Locavore is a free iOS app (Android, too) that shows you what produce is currently in season, what local produce those around you are eating, and where the farms, CSAs (community supported agriculture), and farmers' markets are located in your area.

After installing the free app (I am using the iOS version), you'll want to allow the app to know your location when it politely asks. … Read more

Shopwell is a free iOS app that helps you maintain a healthy diet and is especially useful if you are allergic to or want to avoid certain foods. The app delivers ratings for a wide variety of food items specific to your profile, helping you find healthier alternatives to foods you like to eat.

Shopwell bills itself as "like having a personal dietitian in the palm of your hands" but it's more like having a monitor dispatched by your personal dietitian or doctor. The app has you set up a profile, where you tell it the types of things you do and don't want in your diet. In order to create a useful lists to shape your diet, it's probably best that you don't wing it but seek professional medical advice.… Read more

The Dirty Dozen app is handy to have on your iPhone for trips to the grocery store. It's free and simple: it lists the 12 fruits and vegetables that contain the most pesticide residue.

I'm lucky to live in a part of the country where there are farms nearby and farmer's markets that run all summer and into the fall. When winter arrives, however, I still have to keep berries in the fridge or my fruit-loving offspring may revolt. With the Dirty Dozen app, I have a quick reference to help me decide when to buy organic. … Read more

On February 10, "Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace" will come back to theaters, this time in 3D. That means we can expect to see Star Wars tie-ins squeezed out worldwide.

With that in mind, if you're in Europe and you're near a Quick restaurant, you might want to swing by and try one of the trio of Star Wars-themed burgers. There's the Jedi Burger, which looks relatively benevolent; the Dark Burger, the bun of which has poppy seeds, a sure sign of evil if I ever saw one; and the Dark Vador Burger. Dark Vador is what Darth Vader is called in French (man, they have a word for everything, don't they?), but that's probably not what draws your attention so much as the OMG WHAT IS--

--the black bun.… Read more

Evernote, in addition to helping you keep track of the people you meet with its new Hello app, now also has a tool for keeping track of meals: Evernote Food.

In this app, you can take pictures of the meals you eat (and the people with whom you eat them), add comments and restaurant information, and then automatically sync this information into the Evernote mothership, its synchronized notebook.

It's a pretty lightweight app, but it is kind of fun, and it could be useful, I suppose, if you were really obsessive about recording what you ate. It could also … Read more