Noodler
In ancient Greece, an oracle was a person who doled out insight handed down by the gods. Take that concept and apply it to noodle soup and smartphones, and you have Noodler, from New York City-based illustrator Michele Humes and Spain-based technology generalist Joshua Sierles.
After opening the app, the user “consults the oracle.” With a tap on the bottom of the screen, a new combination of broth, noodles and toppings populates, accompanied by a cute illustrated bowl of the prophesied recipe.
If the user clicks on the illustration, buttons pop up offering options to cook the recipe, add to favorites or go back. Selecting “cook” brings up even more choices: broth recipes, descriptions of the chosen noodle, and how to make or where to buy various toppings.
The app is loaded with information delivered in bite-size, illustrated pieces. Never heard of narutomaki? Noodler will tell you: It’s a fish sausage named for Japan’s Naruto whirlpools. Does the only chicken broth in your larder come in boxes? Noodler explains how to improve store-bought broth by infusing it with lemongrass and ginger or adding a squeeze of lime and a splash of fish sauce.
Noodler is at once a dictionary, a cookbook and, as one Apple reviewer noted, a Magic 8 Ball. It seems best suited for those who are comfortable in the kitchen, but even folks with merely a passing interest in food are likely to find consulting this oracle mesmerizing.
After continuous browsing, the combinations began to feel almost repetitive, although Noodler says it can produce more than 3 million “chef-curated” bowls.
The app doesn’t allow ingredients to be filtered out of or into recipes (say, to accommodate for gluten intolerance or a dislike of Brussels sprouts). Users also can’t click on an ingredient and see all the recipes it’s in, which seems like an obvious thing for a recipe-driven app.
Noodler is free for iOS and Android.
— Kara Elder, The Washington Post
