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The Great Digital Food Hunt

Posted July 21st, 2011 by Sheila Scarborough

Baja Shrimp Tacos at Surfside Sandwich Shoppe N Padre Island TX (photo by Sheila Scarborough)A little over a year ago, the Gowalla and Foursquare apps on my phone led me to Houston’s House of Pies – a slice of their Bayou Goo pie, to be precise, with chocolate and pecans and whipped cream and all sorts of other unmentionables….

This time it was Yelp on my phone leading me to these delicious grilled shrimp tacos at Surfside Sandwich Shoppe in a small strip mall on North Padre Island, Texas, near Corpus Christi.

A GPS-enabled smartphone is really changing how I find places to eat.

Yes, I still lug my usual stack of print guidebooks out of habit, but many times I have a carload of hungry family members and I just want to know, right then, what is good within about a 2-mile radius of wherever we are.

No, the dude behind the counter at the local gas station has pretty much struck out for me as a source of restaurant recommendations.

While we’re ordering, I always tell the proprietor that, “Hey, we found you through reviews on Yelp (or Gowalla or Foursquare.)”

The response is either, “Oh, yes, we get a lot of activity on there. Thank you!” or it’s a blank, quizzical stare – as we say sometimes in Texas – “like a cow looking at a new gate.”

All I know is, I don’t have to end up at Wendy’s unless I want to.

Update:  This post was included in Wanderfood Wednesday: Between the (Bean Curd) Sheets – food stories from around the world. Wander Foodie badge

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 21st, 2011 at 10:04 pm and is filed under food & drink, Island travel, Sheila projects, US travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

3 Responses to “The Great Digital Food Hunt”

  1. Carolyn Says:
    July 29th, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    I’ve been wondering whether some of these apps will actually lead to good food recommendations, or whether they’re just automating the suggestions of the dude at the gas station. Glad to hear this experience was positive. And those shrimp tacos look delicious (especially to someone in shrimp taco-deprived British Columbia…)!

  2. Sheila Scarborough Says:
    July 30th, 2011 at 11:52 am

    Hi Carolyn,

    They’ve been pretty accurate so far. It’s kind of like TripAdvisor; toss out the top and bottom and look at the middle for best results.

  3. Mental Mosaic Says:
    August 3rd, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    That fish taco photo makes me hungry very time I see it!

    I love my iPhone but haven’t used it to rustle up any grub.
    After reading your post, though, I am definitely going to
    give it a whirl next time I’m out on an explore.

    Thanks again for contributing this post to the Traveler’s Show & Tell blog carnival over at Mental Mosaic. Hope to see you there again! :)

    ~Tui

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