Foodspotting gets the 2.0 moniker and is better than ever

A while back I told you about Foodspotting. Do you remember that post? OK, well here's your bullet points:

• You take photos of a specific food/dish at a restaurant
• You upload those photos to the Foodspotting site along with a little description of the food, if you're feeling randy
• People can then look for foods around them or at specific restaurants and see photos of the yummy food you just snapped a photo of

They came out with an iPhone app a few months ago and it was OK, but it was buggy and lacked a lot of functionality and features you'd expect. Well, 3 days ago they came out with version 2.0 of both the site and the iPhone app and both are bad-ass improvements.

I loved the site and the concept before, now I'm shopping for the ring. It's such a great idea and the way it integrates with iPhone (Android, soon) Twitter and Facebook are extremely well executed. It's insanely fun to look at some of the dishes around the world and search for dishes that have been spotted near you; I've searched out dishes and restaurants from photos on the site and am glad I did; the photos really did them justice. I've bookmarked foods from all over the place to try when I'm anywhere near them and the guides provided by foodspotters, famous chefs and so forth for various cities really give you a chance to find not only the restaurants you should visit but see photos of the dishes that these people recommend. Sofa King cool.

So if you have iPhone you have no excuse to not use this app (it's free) and even if you don't there's no reason you shouldn't become a foodspotter and snap photos of your food and share them with the rest of the world, especially if you're visiting a place that's not yet known to the Foodspotting community.

Foodspotting

I've been remiss in posting about this and figured it was time to do so...

I joined the beta version of this site a few months back and they've really been upping their game and making improvements and enhancements to both the website and iPhone application and I think everyone should sign up. Here's how it works...

You go to a restaurant or some public place serving food, take a photo of the specific dish you got, upload the photo to the site, write a little review (if you'd like) and then others can search for that specific dish (let's say, spicy tuna roll) or set a location (say, Huntington Beach, CA) and search for a food type (like sushi) or restaurant (like Tuna Town) or just search for all foods near them. Then when you find what you're looking for you can see an actual photo of the food and hopefully get an honest review of it and the restaurant. Users can also "NOM" a food, indicating it's one of their favorite foods and that they recommend it to other users and you can NOM other foods you've had though did not post an actual spotting of that food. You start with 10 NOM's and earn the ability to NOM more foods as you post more foods; it's pretty fun.

iPhone users have the added convenience of being able to upload photos and reviews directly from their phone, NOM foods and basically do everything the website allows but with the added convenience of being mobile; it's really slick. Restaurant information is available as well as tying into Google Maps in order to help you contact and find the place a food was spotted as well as see push pins on a map of all places near you that where food has been spotted.

It's super fun to see some of the foods that are posted from all over the world and get inspired to try something new or try a restaurant you'd heard of but never knew anyone that had tried it. If this picks up in popularity (if volume of food spottings and reviews is any indicator, it already has) then it has the ability to be an incredibly useful guide as you could go to a restaurant and see photos of dozens of dishes they have to offer and read unbiased reviews, all before the waiter even drops off a menu.

So, add something to the community and make discovering great food a super fun and simple process!

Sign up for free to become a Foodspotter...

www.foodspotting.com

iPhone application (opens a link in iTunes)

Auf Wiedersehen!

There comes a time in every young man's life when he must travel overseas to pick up a new car...or just backpack across Europe...whatever...
- Bryan Mills

The time is upon us. It is go-time. All systems are a GO for launch over to Europe to pick up the new car. It has been a frenzied last couple weeks with work and planning and what not, but I think we're ready to get up and go. I'll have to do some work while I am overseas (not really a big deal) but with the connectivity/transparency I have setup with my personal and business life, most people won't even realize that I'm gone.

If you know me, you know that I cannot be disconnected from the digital world at all. With that said, I'll be blogging while over in Europe for the next 12 days. If this adventure is anything like my last extended overseas vacation, it should be a pretty entertaining read.

To recap, here's the itinerary...

4/10: Fly to Boston en route to London
4/11: Arrive late in London, grab a Guinness...pass out
4/12 - 4/13: Dilly dally in London trying not to buy much stuff due to the weak-ass US Dollar, aka the Steve Urkel of currencies. I will, however, be splurging for a belated birthday present and buying myself a fine hat from the oldest hat shop in London (founded 1676) James Lock & Co. Hatters.
4/14: Hop on a flight to Munich...go to BMW delivery center and pick up the car...drive car out the front door, make a left turn and park it...hop on a train back to MUC and fly to France
4/15 - 4/17: We're visiting some off-the-beaten-path city in France named Paris...I'll let you know what it's like
4/18: Fly back to Munich, pick up the car and drive to Salzburg, Austria and look for the Von Trapp family. 71.7 miles from Munich to Austria...should take about 40 minutes to get there :)
4/19: Relax in lovely Salzburg and enjoy everything Salzburg has to offer
4/20: Take the scenic route back to Munich and meet up with my sister and brother in law
4/21 - 4/22: BIER...lots and lots of the best bier on Earth...drive all around Bavaria in the BMW and let the car experience freedom before having its nuts cut off and sent back to the no fun zone, aka USA Freeways
4/23: Hop on a plane and get back to LA with loads of photos, souveniers and hopefully no parking tickets :)

We're super stoked, we have everything all set up and now we just gotta get the hell out of here. So gang, keep checking back here as I'll be posting regularly and I guarantee you'll dig it.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Giving credit where credit is fondue

Hard to believe that it took me 31 years to try eating melted cheese with cubes of bread on the end of a 1-foot, 2- pronged fork...but that wait is over. Birthday dinner: The Melting Pot. Yeah baby!

It was everything I had dreamed of, though admittedly I had never dreamed about fondue (thank god). After last night, though, I might find myself dreaming of falling off a cliff into a fondue pot with Gruyere and Emmenthaler cheese. Ever had that dream? The food was pretty damn good and the dessert was over the top, but I loved every graham cracker and piece of pound-cake dipped second of it. Will I go again? Absolutely. Will I be sure to work off 1000 calories prior to going? ABSOLUTELY.

I remember growing up that my parents had a fondue set that was strikingly similar to the one below. I enjoyed taking the forks and using them in place of the standard wider and shorter 4-pronged models typically found at the dinner table whenever I could; I never really got far with them and went back to the old stand-by every time. I had to try, though, ya know? Besides, the tops of the forks looked like the pegs from a Mastermind board game which I thoroughly enjoyed, so it was natural that I'd be drawn to the fondue forks for more than just novelty.

Doug & Sue Mills wedding registry item, no doubt

BTW, in my research of fondue I came across this wacky link to a "when fondue parties go bad" as hosted by 2 action figures. Oh and this piece of sheet music below seems to warn us of the inherent danger of mixing whiskey & fondue, in 6/8 time.



Yeah. And you thought I was strange...