10 Awesome Specialty Food Apps

When traveling somewhere new, there is so often that one item that must be sampled, one bite that must be tasted. While there are all sorts of ways to find out the real "best" (sitting at a restaurant bar to grill the bartender, striking up conversation with locals in line for a food stand),there is a new way to unearth insider food information — an app.

Click here to see the 10 Awesome Specialty Food Apps Slideshow.

There is a guy in Trinidad and Tobago so passionate about doubles that he created an app for the sole purpose of finding the best doubles in his country. It's not flashy, and he's not trying to expand to other foods or countries, but its apps like that that are a traveler's best friend. He took the local word-of-mouth recommendations and, for one food at least, turned them into a trusted resource easily accessible from a cellphone. Turns out, there is a treasure trove of specialty food apps pointing intrepid gastronomes in the direction of the world's most sought-after eats, including Brussels' best frites, the best pastries in Paris, the greatest burgers across America, London's best fish and chips, and the top ramen shops in Tokyo.

Apps like these turn a simple food hunt into a full-fledged gastronomic adventure. They also turn opinionated locals who've done the legwork into automatic trusted insiders (or experts). In Chicago for the weekend and feel like avoiding unworthy tourist traps in favor of the real best Chicago-style hot dogs? Don't want to spend the entire trip to Sydney on the hunt for the city's best kebab shop? Want to know where the best street food is in Malaysia without the guess work? There's an app for that.