Just as it is important to have a kitchen stocked with the right ingredients and tools before a cooking adventure, it is pertinent for any food lover to have these apps at their disposal.
No longer wonder which wine to pair with your meal or how many pints are in a half gallon!
Scroll through, click, learn and download!
Have a favorite food app of your own that isn’t listed or know of a great online grocery shopping experience? Share with me in the comments!
AT HOME…
App: Amount
Available: iOS
Price: $0.99
Description: How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? I’ll be honest, I don’t even know that off the top of my head. Math was never my strong suit (thus why I was more into writing than doing equations). AMOUNT is a convenient app to help you convert measurements, so you can get to cooking quicker and easier.
App: Kitchen Stories
Available: iOS
Price: Free
Description: This app, which calls itself your video and photo cookbook, has new free recipes every week. The recipes come in complete packages with how-to videos, step-by-step instructions, wine pairings, and downloadable shopping lists.
App: Foodgawker
Available: iOS
Price: Free with ads or $1.99 for All Access
Description: Foodgawker is solid food porn. You can browse gorgeous pictures of food and discover new recipes collected from around the Internet, like Pinterest, but just for food. You can favorite, save, and add notes to recipes you want to make later.
App: Mixologist
Available: iOS and Android
Price: Free with ads, $0.99 for iOS, $1.49 for Android
Description: Mixologist is a must-have app if you love to play bartender. You can tell the app which ingredients you have on hand, and it will create a list of drinks you can make with what you already have. Andy Samberg unfortunately not included.
App: Thyme
Available: iOS and Android
Price: $0.99
Description: The app states “it only does one thing, but does it very well.” It sets a timer for everything you have cooking in your kitchen! The smart layout takes multitasking while cooking to a whole new level.
App: Yummly
Available: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Description: Yummly is another recipe discovery app that combines beautiful pictures with recipes from around the web. You can filter recipes by the ingredients you have on hand, create different recipe boxes, and build shopping lists for the week based on the recipes you choose.
AT THE MARKET…
App: Consumr
Available: iOS
Price: Free
Description: Let’s say you’re at the grocery store and trying to decide between two brands of granola bars. You can use Consumr to read customer reviews of each. Using your iPhone’s camera, Consumr scans the item’s barcode and returns user reviews for thousands of products ranging from frozen foods and snacks to beauty care products.
App: Fooducate
Available: iOS and Android
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Description: This app is the coolest. Using your phone’s camera, you can use Fooducate to scan products at the grocery store and find out if it’s a healthy choice or not. The app assigns a grade to each product based on its nutritional value with a breakdown of what’s actually in your food. Fooducate also recommends alternative options and lets you track your daily calories.
App: Instacart
Available: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Description: Instacart is a grocery delivery service that lets you make specific requests right down to the ripeness of your fruits. Shoppers get your groceries together and deliver to your door in just a few hours. Instacart service is currently available at stores like Whole Foods, Costco, and Kroger in these.
App: Craft Check
Available: iOS
Price: $0.99
Description: Craft beers are everywhere, which is a wonderful thing, but big manufacturers have caught onto the trend. If you’re on a beer run and you want to make sure your choice is truly a craft brew, use Craft Check. Use your phone’s camera to scan the barcode, and the app will tell you if your pick is really a craft beer or not.
App: Vivino
Available: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Description: Vivino uses your phone’s camera to help you research wines while you’re at the grocery store wine aisle. All you have to do is take a picture of the label and Vivino will return a list of customer reviews and the average price of the bottle. You can also make a profile to save wines you want to try later and add reviews of your own.
AND WHEN GOING OUT…
App: OpenTable
Available: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8
Price: Free
Description: The essential go-to app for making reservations at most of your favorite restaurants. Browse restaurants in your city, select the date, time, and number in your party. If this isn’t on your phone already, download it immediately.
App: Tastemade
Available: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Description: Tastemade is a great app for the food lover who also loves to travel. Through a network of “Tastemakers” in 22 cities around the world, Tastemade offers short, one or two minute videos showcasing the coolest places for food lovers. You can also use the app to make your own videos during your travels and creates lists of the places you’ve been and want to see.
App: Humane Eating Project
Available: iOS and Android (beta)
Price: Free
Description: This app is a gift for people who want to make sure they’ll have animal-friendly choices when dining out. The app marks restaurants that are especially vegan or vegetarian-friendly with a green marker and restaurants with humanely-raised meats with a brown marker. It also has a “watch list” of restaurants that serve foie gras, veal, and shark fin soup, marked in red.
App: WineGlass
Available: iOS
Price: $4.99
Description: We’ve all been here: You sit down for a nice meal, take a look at the wine list, and when your server comes over, you pick one basically at random. Wine lists are so long! With WineGlass, you can take take a picture of the menu and the app will create an interactive version that gives you the prices, ratings, and food pairings for each one on the list so you can order like a pro.
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