Favorite Foodie Apps for my iPhone

I LOVE my iPhone. I say that if not daily, then at least weekly. Cruddy AT&T coverage/service issues aside, I love it’s usefulness. Finally, I have my contacts/calendar/phone all connected, which is a life saver as some days it seems I am never home. I love so many of the apps and wonder how I survived without them. Okay, a bit overly dramatic, but I think you do sense my allegiance to my phone.

Many of my favorite apps are actually some relating to food, cooking, and dining out so I thought I’d share them with you along with review–both the pros and cons.

Epicurious–love the interface for searches, and like the full website you can create shopping lists which is great. Recipes come from the Conde Nast publications like Bon Appetit and Gourmet. I rely heavily on the user ratings and reviews. You can also favorite items to a short list so that you don’t have to search for them later. Within a recipe, when you turn the phone on its side, the orientation changes and you can quickly tab or slide between ingredients and preparation directions. I found a cover for my phone that came with a little stand to hold your phone horizontally, which is perfect for viewing recipes with this app. This orientation feature is also available using their regular website through the phone browser. My one complaint is that it doesn’t sync with your online recipe box at Epicurious.com. Hoping that maybe they’ll offer a premium version that would sync the full-site with the app version. My dream world–an iPad in the kitchen so I can have the recipes in a larger screen format. Cost: Free

AllRecipes Dinner Spinner–I’m just now exploring this app. Like Epicurious, it’s a collection of recipes, but this time user submitted. Users can also rate and review the recipes as well. It has a spinner mode with three components–dish type, ingredients, “ready in”. You can lock any of those components so that you could get suggestions for “main dish”, “chicken”, “ready in 45 minutes or less”.  Or you could lock “chicken” and “slow cooker” and see what options you might have. You can also identify favorites. There is a premium version available that allows you to sync to the recipe box you have at the AllRecipe.com website and create lists, but for now I’ll continue to explore the free version. Cost: free

Shopper–Great for keeping multiple lists to different stores. Items are grouped in general by “aisle” which makes for pretty organized shopping. It allows you to check off items as you put them into your basket, just as you would cross off items on a paper list. You can create templates of lists for regularly needed items, which can be helpful for that Costco run, since I seem to get the same stuff at Costco every time. It has a well populated list of items that you select from to add to list, but it also allows you to add new items. I like how you can add notes to an item for more info, or even adding quantity or size requirements. The interface to allow you to customize the aisles to the different stores (Target is set up different from say, your regular grocery) isn’t always intuitive to me, so I haven’t really tried to modify. You can also email lists, which is handy when I need to hand off a list to my husband. Cost: $0.99

Seafood Watch–Fish scares me. I have a hard time getting myself to cook with it out of health concerns (mercury or other toxin ridden fish) or sustainability concerns (over fishing). This app is helpful when I do find myself at the fish counter wondering what is okay to eat. It helps you identify what is Best Choice, Good Alternative, or something to Avoid. Each fish has a little info guide about the fish details out any concerns or issues. Pretty educational. It is broken down into the Seafood guide which lists by name and the Sushi guide which uses the common sushi name for the fish. Cost: Free

Urbanspoon–A restaurant review guide that has both reviews by media critics and patrons. We find this really useful when we are traveling and don’t know the restaurants as well. Let’s you search by location/neighborhood, cuisine and price point. Contact info, map, reviews are all pretty easy to access. Cost: Free

I am sure I will continue to acquire more food/cooking apps as time goes on, but for now, there’s my shortlist of handy ones!