El Bulli

I was sent this link this weekend — I opened it immediately and loved it.  My dad and I are obsessed with the THOUGHT of going to El Bulli, and reading about it was the next best thing to going. You have to read the Amateur Gourmet’s adventure at El Bulli – it’s a fantastic mix of picture, story, video, and food.

Near + Now: Pandora meets Urban Spoon

Now living in an iPhone culture we have many apps to choose from when trying to find a place to eat. Some of my all time favorites include Urban Spoon, Around Me, and of course Open Table’s app. But recently there is a new player to the field of restaurant sleuthing in the urban jungle and that is Near+Now. From what I can tell this app has a fairly extensive database of restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, and cafes. But what makes it a step above the rest is its ranking system. It operates just like Pandora does; the more you rank, the better it becomes at offering recommendations.

Near + Now home page

Popover Cafe on Near+now

The interface utilizes all that the iPhone has to offer providing for each listing a link to view it on a map, call or visit the website, and view reviews.

Even more interesting is the company behind it, SORTUV, whose goal is to pandora-ize search engines. Here they are in their own words:

We build search technologies that make it possible to discover information that is difficult to describe.

Words like cool, modern, hip, romantic, retro and timeless mean different things to different people. So until computers can read your mind, Keywords don’t always work.

With Sortuv technologies you discover places, events, products, people, ideas and experiences that matter to you by comparing and connecting them to things you already know and like.

-From their “About Us” section.

I don’t know much about their other operations but this app has greatly help me find new restaurants in my own neighborhood as well as avoid getting restaurants I hate as options.

Julie & Julia

I read the book a couple of summers back — 2006 — and loved the book.  Haven’t yet seen the movie, has anyone seen it?  Recommend it?

Sony Pictures