5 Cool iPhone Apps for Food Geeks

With the new iPhone 4 arriving on the scene and Verizon finally getting on the iPhone bandwagon, phone apps are becoming more and more popular. Just about every organization, company, or program is looking to develop their own unique app for iPhone users and there?s no exception when it comes to the food community. From apps that tell when certain foods are in season, to apps making restaurant reservations as easy as a few taps on your phone, new food apps are popping up all over the place and it?s hard to keep track. Below is a quick round up of 5 cool food apps worth downloading.

1. Fooducate

Fooducate started as a website whose purpose was to give helpful nutrition information about food items people would find everyday in their local grocery stores. From the website they developed an accompanying iPhone app. The app allows you to scan products in the store using the bar code scanner so that you can get accurate information about the nutritional content and compare it with other products. This app would be perfect for moms who want to buy better products for their kids, or for people on specialized diets that need thorough nutrition information.

2. Locavore

This handy little app helps you identify what foods are in season during a particular time of year, arranged by state. You can either click the state to see what?s in season, or find a food and see where it is currently in season. For example, oranges in Florida. This is a great app for when you are at the local farmer’s market or grocery store and want to buy the freshest, most sustainable, in season produce available.

3. Seafood Watch

This app was put together by the Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood watch and covers a wide range of tools including a sushi guide feature which lists fish by Japanese name and common market name, provides alternative fish products to those on the ?Avoid? list, and has a GPS feature which tracks your locations and shows which seafood is sustainable or ?Super Green? in your area. Great for sushi fanatics and seafood lovers who want to avoid a hefty carbon footprint but still get their fishy fix.

4. Epicurious

This app is great for adventurous cooks or those who need a little inspiration at the grocery store. The app has over 25,000 recipes from big names like Gourmet and Bon Appétit. You can search recipes by ingredient, cuisine, dietary restriction, occasion, or even put in fun categories like ?Dishes Kids Love?. Nothing is more frustrating than coming back from the store, only to see you forgot a key ingredient. Well now, problem solved!

5. OpenTable

Simple, but very handy, the OpenTable app allows you to make reservations with subsequent email confirmation at over 15,000 restaurants in the U.S., Canada, and United Kingdom. It tracks down the restaurants closest to your location and you can even book at restaurants needing a credit card number. This is a great tool for restaurant snoots and those looking to impress guests from out of town. If OpenTable isn?t your favorite, Urbanspoon is another great option.

And here’s a winter squash recipe that’s perfectly in-season in Washington for March:

Baked Winter Squash

Photos by Flickr user Tony Buser and William Hook