Spotted

The Top 10 Perfect Pairings (and Giveaway Extension)

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:48:37 -0700

One week of giveaways just wasn’t enough, so Foodspotting and OpenTable brought back the Perfect Pairings contest for one more round. Name your favorite pair of foods (or drink!) and you’ll be entered into a daily drawing for $100. That’s enough green to cover dinner for two!

If you haven’t entered yet, get on it! Here’s how:

- Follow @OpenTable on Twitter.
- Tweet your #perfectpairing.
- Bonus: use a Foodspotting.com URL or add a photo to your tweet for an extra entry!
- There's a daily drawing throughout the week, so you can submit one #perfectpairing each day.

We loved seeing everyone’s submissions last week. There are so many combinations out there! Some are truly classic, while others are creative, or really, really unusual. We wanted to offer a glimpse into what you think are the most universally loved food pairings.

Here are the most popular #PerfectPairing duos...

Hamburger and Fries Everyone loves burgers with fries! Also popular? Burgers with a fried egg, burgers with beer, and burgers with bacon. This burger and fries is from Duane's Ono-Char Burger in Anahola, HI. Spotted by Randy F.

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup It's comforting and delicious! Try the Cheddar & Mozzarella Grilled Cheese With Tomato Soup at The Queens Kickshaw in Astoria, NY. Spotted by meez.

Bagel and Lox Mike Winston spotted a bagel with Pastrami Lox at Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish in New York, NY.

A Donut and Cup of Coffee Most people don't eat this every day, but when they do have a donut and coffee, it's their favorite breakfast treat. This glazed Ring Donut was found at Top Pots Doughnuts in Seattle, WA. Spotted by a.h. guillaume.

Fish and Chips Fancy the halibut Fish and Chips at The Olde Yorke Fish & Chips in Toronto, ON? Spotted by Chops.

Tortilla Chips and Salsa Spicy, crunchy, salty, and satisfying—this chips and salsa came from Spencer Makenzie's Fish Company in Ventura, CA. Spotted by J.

Fried Chicken and Waffles This duo is one of the more common yet unusual pairings mentioned. Enjoy savory and sweet Gussie's Chicken & Waffle in San Francisco, CA, spotted by Stephanie Griffin.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter This cupcake is just one of many ways to combine chocolate and peanut butter. It's from Let Them Eat Cupcakes cupcake in Honolulu, HI. Spotted by JKat.

Chicken Wings and Blue Cheese Dunk your wings at Red Hot and Blue in Falls Church, US, spotted by Burger Days.

Eggs and Bacon What better way to enjoy eggs and bacon than in the pasta dish Spaghetti alla Carbonara? This one was spotted by Fox W at Magnolia Wine Bar e Lounge in Roma, Italy.

Beans and Rice It's a a longtime staple of world cuisine. Beans and rice make an extra-special showing as Andouille Sausage with Red Beans and Rice at Stella in Iowa City, IA, spotted by Tasha-Leigh.

For even more sweet and savory dishes, browse the other Perfect Pairings!

Enter the Foodspotting + OpenTable Perfect Pairing Giveaway

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:03:45 -0700

Foodspotting and OpenTable go together like peas and carrots, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese. To celebrate our delicious union, OpenTable is giving away dinner for two!

To enter, follow @OpenTableand tweet your favorite #perfectpairing (don’t forget the hashtag). For a bonus entry, include a picture or Foodspotting URL. You could win the daily drawing for dinner for two worth $100.

So let’s hear it—what’s your #PerfectPairing?

Spotted: Mac the Goat at Homeroom in Oakland, CA by James M Ngo, Chips and Salsa at Papalote Mexican Grill in San Francisco, CA by Adam Groffman, Apple Pie a la Mode at Rosebud Prime in Chicago, IL by David Rozek, Spaghetti and Meatballs at Brucie in Brooklyn, NY by LUNCH

Foodspotting Eatups: Miami, Philly, Tampa

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:25:01 -0700

The east coast has several exciting eatups happening in the next few weeks! Foodspotters, it's time to get together and chow down.

MIAMI: The second Miami eatup is coming up on April 17th at Pao Town from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Fatgirl Hedonist is at the helm and has secured $2 draft beers. RSVP on the Facebook Event page and we’ll see you there!

PHILADELPHIA: Join in the belated birthday celebration at Ms.Goody Cupcake shop on April 13th at noon. For the occasion, they’re offering a special. It’s $3.90 for your choice of cupcake plus two cake truffles! Too hard to resist, right? RSVP on the Facebook Event page.

Spotlight on another recent east coast eatup:

TAMPA: The previous Datz eatup looked like a ton of fun, and so it was no surprise that last Sunday's March 24th brunch at Besa Grill was also delicious. The 15 seat RSVP was full! If you're in the Tampa area, make sure to Like the Foodspotting Tampa so you don't miss out on the next great eatup.

Recently spotted: Sweet Cherry Pie at Ms Goody Cupcake - Custom Cakes and Cupcakes in Philadelphia, PA by Brian and Sticky Ribs at Pao Town in Coral Gables, FL by Cole Slaw

Get the New iPhone Update While It’s Hot

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:41:41 -0800

While you may not spot the changes right away, there's a lot going on under the hood in the latest Foodspotting iPhone update. In particular, we've completely rebuilt sharing to be faster and smarter than ever! We hope you’ll love several of the new features as they make Foodspotting even more fun and convenient to use.

Ever thought...?

"I want to jot down the dish names while I still have the menu!" Now you can fill in the details like place and dish name and add the photo later. Just choose "Skip Photo" (the button on the right) and hit "Close" to save once you've filled in the details.
"I take my picture before I've tasted the food!" or "I don't want to make my friends wait to eat!" Use the new saved drafts to take a picture and hit "Close" to save for later when you can add the details and share whether you loved it.

What else is new?

Suggested Places: See suggested places based on where the photo was taken (if you've allowed location services) instead of your current location.
Date Taken: See the date taken (instead of date uploaded) on your profile and following feed. Now people won't think you were eating a cheeseburger at 2am. Unless you actually were.
Lists: Like Guides and Nearby Places have been unified to use unified search controls and paging.

Sound good? Go get it! Download or update the new Foodspotting app, and rate it five stars for five (and more!) great new features.

Table for Two: Foodspotting Joins the OpenTable Family

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:17:20 -0800

We just celebrated our birthday and over three delicious years of helping people find and share great dishes. Now we have something else to toast because we're joining forces with our friends at OpenTable, who have agreed to acquire Foodspotting!

(See OpenTable Press Release)

When we founded Foodspotting, driven by our love of obscure dishes like okonomiyaki, Ted, Soraya and I set out to bring a dish-centric dining guide into the world and watch it grow. We raised some money, grew our team to ten (plus alum), and built a community that catalogued over three million dishes. Today, towards the same end, we're so happy to have found a great home for Foodspotting where our site, app, and community can continue to thrive while our entire team continues to focus on making your dining experiences awesome.

We’ve already been working closely with the OpenTable team as partners: In addition to making restaurant reservations via Foodspotting, you may have seen Foodspotting photos from select restaurants popping up on OpenTable. But we both realized we could create smarter experiences if we could integrate more deeply by, for example, recommending dishes when you make reservations to enabling restaurants to showcase their best dishes. We look forward to augmenting your dining experiences with Foodspotting’s recommendations to forge the shortest path between you and great food!

What does this mean for me?

Rest assured that Foodspotting will continue to live on as a standalone product, as OpenTable deeply values the Foodspotting community and your contributions. You’ll still be able to spot food anywhere in the world, from street food stalls to seven course meals. But you can also look forward to smarter recommendations, better restaurant information and a more visual, social and design-driven dining experience as we bring the best of Foodspotting to OpenTable.

We hope you’ll celebrate with us as we reimagine dining with OpenTable. We’d love to hear what you’d like to see us create together, and look forward to making it happen!

A Southwestern Holiday Road Trip Food Tour

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:58:07 -0800

April, Foodspotting's Head of Community, went on Southwestern Hoilday Road Trip a this year during her December vacation and got help from you on places she should eat. Here are some of her food highlights.

One could argue that it’s harder finding food on a road trip than if you were staying in one place over a vacation. For one thing, you never know where you’ll be when you get hungry. Thanks to Google Maps, you can try to predict lunch and snack time, but there’s a good chance you’ll get hungry in the middle of nowhere. Knowing that we were departing with a very helpful guide and Foodspotting, I was confident we’d have some incredible meals. And the Southwestern road trip did not disappoint. The trip was mostly Mexican or Tex-Mex with bright breaks of outstanding not-Mexican.

Where we went: Palm Springs, Tucson, Marfa, Austin then Van Horn, Truth or Consequences, Sedona, Palm Springs, San Francisco, with many stops in between!

Here are the highlights...

1. Salinas City BBQ (Salinas, CA)
The first stop was an out-of-the-way BBQ join in Salinas City. The rib sandwich? Meaty, saucy—worth it. The brisket was great too.

2. Cheeky’s (Palm Springs, CA)
People love Cheeky’s bacon flight and rightfully so, but for me it was the side order of crispy waffles with salted butter that made this an extra-special breakfast. It was like a fancy Ego waffle. The rotating menu of brunch classics make Cheeky’s a place you should visit if you’re in the neighborhood.

3. Cafe Poca Cosa (Tucson, AZ)
While it’s true that the colorful assortment of dishes at Cafe Poca Cosa weren’t a new discovery for this trip, it was food so memorable that we sped towards it. The menu changes nightly, but one constant is the Chef’s Choice—a plate with three dishes from that night’s menu, selected by the chef.

4. Las Cazuelas (Deming, NM)
Deming, New Mexico is a small-ish town near another very small town, Hatch—home of the world famous Hatch chile. The restaurant shares a room with a meat deli, so we weren’t sure what would be placed before us. We got excellent beans (with hot dog!), along with an fabulous representation of Tex-Mex: green enchiladas, chile colorado, and chile rellenos.

5. Pizza Foundation (Marfa, TX)
Remote west Texas might not sound like someplace you can get a good slice, but then again Marfa, TX isn’t typical. This little artist town has a ton of personality and also some very delicious food. We enjoyed a chill evening of pizza with the locals at the Pizza Foundation.

6. El Primo Taco Truck (Austin, TX)
Although we were in Austin for a handful of days, regrettably we only had breakfast tacos one morning. El Primo Taco Truck is one man in one truck, busily cooking, taking orders, and serving up tortas, and the best darn breakfast tacos that we’ve had the pleasure of trying in Austin. Get the chorizo? As if there’s a question. (Yes, get it.)

7. Habanero's (Las Cruces, NM)
It’s always a good sign to be asked “Your first time here?” when you’re walking towards a restaurant entrance only to be told “Well then, you’re in for a treat.” when you answer in the affirmative. This tiny restaurant starts thing off with a welcome soup once you sit down. Good mole, great green sauce too.

8. BellaLuca Cafe Italiano (Truth or Consequences, NM)
BellaLuca was a great break from Mexican although they managed to make a beautiful dish fettuccini featuring the speciality ingredient of the area, the Hatch chile. We also enjoyed their wedge salad, which was a welcome insertion of green into an otherwise beige, brown, and red diet. We only wish there was room left for dessert! The perfect after dinner apéritif instead was a soak in a local hot spring tub.

9. Happy Belly Deli (Truth or Consequences, NM)
The next great piece of morning history from this road trip was the highway-friendly breakfast burrito. The restaurant was a small slice of local personality, with residents discussing news and reading the paper.

10. Pie-O-Neer Cafe (Pie Town, NM)
What does one order in Pie Town, New Mexico? Pie, of course! Our slices did not disappoint but if we had to pick a favorite, it’d be the Chocolate and Chile, Pinenut Pie. And the green chile stew was the perfect complement to the high-altitude chill in the air.

11. Satchmo's (Flagstaff, AZ)
Satchmo’s provided the perfect non-Mexican comfort food: tater tots. The clackened catfish was also excellent and don’t ever pass up a brisket burnt ends BBQ. It’s a delicacy on it’s own.

12. Heart of Sedona Coffee (Sedona, AZ)
While finding someplace to get our morning meal proved to be a challenge, our final pick did not disappoint. It was a little unwieldy in the car but the breakfast pita had a unique flavor thanks to feta, bell peppers, and an olive tapenade sauce.

13. Jiao (Palm Springs, CA)
Cheeky’s owner has a few other restaurants in Palm Springs and for our return trip we visited the newest, Jiao. The Asian street food menu was a delight at this point in the trip, especially that fresh Mizuna Salad. We also chewed and sniffed our way through most of the shishito peppers.

14. Sherman’s Deli & Bakery (Palm Springs)
Corned beef hash the way it was meant to be. This place was huge, efficient, and oh so good. You can't order wrong especially when most things come with a bagel.

15. Romanti-Ezer (Santa Barbara, CA)
Where to begin with this final entry in our road trip food experiences? Their Horchata had ground peanuts on top along with a cherry and was unlike any we’ve had previously. The tortillas and pupusas were homemade so while we had to wait, it was worth it 100%. Our only disappointment? That the next time we want more of their incredible pupusas, we have to get down to Santa Barbara again. Did someone say road trip pt. 2?

So what do you think? Anything you want to try? Biggies we missed? Thank you for your suggestions, Foodspotters! Next time you hit the road, don’t forget to pack Foodspotting and you won’t go hungry.

Happy Third Birthday, Foodspotting!

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:08:24 -0800

[View this album on Facebook: Three Years in Photos]

Make a wish and blow out the candles, Foodspotting turns three today! It’s been an incredible year with many new features, a beautiful redesign, not to mention so many new mouth-watering sightings and delicious eatups around the world. Thank you for being such an amazing, astounding, and hungry community of food lovers.

Because no birthday is complete without a bit of reflection, here are some highlights from the past year, our most fruitful year yet:

Launched our first ever web redesign since 2010
Completely redesigned and rebuilt our iPhone & Android apps
Celebrated our 3 millionth sighting; last year we celebrated 1 million!
Piloted our rewards program in San Francisco this December
Added Foodspotting to Facebook Timelines
Partnered with Grubhub
Appeared on the Today Show (Go, Alexa!)

On our first birthday, we proclaimed January 15th as World Foodspotting Day. Last year we threw a Ball Ball and watched as people gathered around the world and enjoyed their own eatup birthday party. This year we’re throwing our own San Francisco birthday party—a Milkshake Mashup Mixoff with our friends Cako, Frozen Kuhsterd, and The Seeker Wines on January 25th!

Our incredible ambassadors and super users are leading the charge on birthday eatups, so join your nearby group of food lovers to find out about what’s in the works. Anyone can host an eatup, so if there’s no one in your area, check out our tips to getting an eatup started in your city.

Belgium - Florida - Kansas City - Las Vegas - Little Rock - Los Angeles - Netherlands - New York - Philadelphia - Sacramento - Seattle - Sydney - Turkey - Vancouver - Washington DC

Thank you for an awesome year and cheers to the future--we're working to make your Foodspotting wishes come true!

New Year, New Eatups: NYC and Miami

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:59:47 -0800

The first eatups of 2013 are just around the corner. If you’re lucky enough to live nearby, join the fun and fellowship of local eaters! Interested in hosting an eatup in your city? Just follow the basics of how to host a Foodspotting eatup.

NEW YORK CITY: Join Ambassador Meng He for a 2-hour all-you-can-eat hot pot experience! It’s only $23 for meat, tasty sides, and a spicy/mild hot pot combo. It’s coming up Monday, January 14th at 6:00 pm, so don’t delay--RSVP if you’ll be there.

MIAMI: The Pincho factory is rumored to have the best fries in South Florida, so you won’t want to miss out on a February 6th Pincho Factory eatup. They’re offering $2 beer from 7:00 - 9:00 pm, so come hungry and thirsty. RSVP to join the fun.

Spotted: The Combo Hot Pot at M Tasty in New York, NY by stephiedoo and the Pincho Burger at The Pincho Factory INC. in Miami, FL by Hayz.