Are you vacationing in Thailand? Do you love Thai food? If you answered, “yes”, to either questions, then this app is for you!
The other day I was telling you about the Thai Food Flashcards that had recently been released for the iPhone. While I was busy doing a test run of that app on the street, another similar app came out called Thai Food Guide. It is always good to have some competition between app developers and hopefully this will encourage them to improve their respective apps. Although the presentation on the first one was much better, the one that I am reviewing today is not only cheaper but also a lot more comprehensive.
When you first enter the app you get a choice between “Dishes” and “Ingredients”. In the picture above left I chose the former. Next you get a choice to view the “Gallery”, “English Glossary” or “Thai Glossary”. In the picture above right I chose “English Glossary” where you get a list of all 86 dishes in English. In the “Thai Glossary” you get a list of the Thai names but written in Roman letters. So, American Fried Rice in the Thai glossary is listed as “Khao phat amerikan”. There is also a search function.
If you choose “Gallery” then you come to the screen in the above left picture. Two columns of pictures which you scroll down to see them all. Click on one of the pictures and you go to a screen with more information like in the one above right. You get the name in English and Thai. I kind of like the gallery of thumbnails without the names on them. I can then use it to test myself to see if I can guess the dish. However, some people might find that some of the thumbnails of the dishes are a bit too small to identify them easily. If they are planning an update, I would also like to see sound added so that people can practice saying the names of the dishes.
Going back to the first screen I then clicked on “Ingredients” which brought me to the second screen that said “Gallery”, “English Glossary” and “Thai Glossary”. This works in much the same way as the Thai Dishes section. This time you get a list of 51 different Thai ingredients. Also like Thai Dishes you get a gallery of the ingredients which you can click on to get more information. The name is written in Thai and has Roman letters to help you read it. Again it would be nice to have a sound clip here.
It is difficult to advise you which one to buy as they both have their own merits. The Thai Food Flashcards certainly has a better presentation but the Thai Food Guide is far more comprehensive. Hopefully you can make up your own mind depending on what you want to use it for. Personally, I think that the one that updates first with sound clips is the winner.
