Designed for lovers of Thai Food, particularly for those travelling or living in Thailand. You will be able to confidently order from non tourist restaurants that don’t have an English menu or any English speaking staff. Simply show the waiter the photo & name in Thai script or even play the audio.
This week sees the launch of the third iPhone app that helps people buy Thai food (see my reviews for Thai Food Flashcards and Thai Food Guide). This new one is called “Thai Talking Food Menu” and in my opinion is the best of the bunch. Although it is not as comprehensive as I would like to see, it has everything that you would need from a Thai food menu decoder. The first screen gives you the different categories such as: deep fried, stir-fried, noodles, curries, salads, soups and rice. In the above example, I clicked on “noodles” where I was presented with a list of different noodle dishes. As you can see, there is a thumbnail picture of the dish, and the name in Thai, romanization and English.
Click on the food that you are interested in and you are taken to a new page where you can see a bigger picture and a bit of information about this dish. What makes this app better than the others is that it also has sound clips. So, you have the choice of either showing the picture to the food vendor or having a go at saying the name of the dish. If you are not sure what you want to eat you can click on the “Top 20″ tab for some suggestions. Another feature that I really like is the talking dictionary. This is sorted into categories such as: noodles, meats, flavour, drinks and requests. Click on any of the words to hear a native Thai speaker. In the request section there are useful phrases such as “no chilli” and “do put in MSG”.
At present there are about 70 or so dishes listed. I have already spoken to the developer about future improvements and he said he already has a plan to add more dishes. He said that he is only restricted by the number of photos he has in his private library. I actually like this app so much, and the potential that it has to be invaluable, that I will be offering the developer free access to my own extensive photo library of Thai street food. There is no doubt that “Thai Talking Food Menu will prove to be the most useful iPhone app for lovers of Thai food.
Download for $1.99 at the iTunes store >>>
COMPETITION: As usual, when I like an iPhone app so much I ask the developer for some free copies to give away. There are four different ways that you can win this app:
(1) Post a comment below. All of the names will be put in a hat and the winner picked on Sunday 11th September 2011 in the evening.
(2) Post a comment on the competition thread on the Paknam Web Forums. All of the names will be put in a hat and the winner picked on Sunday 11th September 2011 in the evening.
(3) Post a comment on the competition thread on my Facebook Page. All of the names will be put in a hat and the winner picked on Sunday 11th September 2011 in the evening.
(4) Tweet the following line on Twitter. All of the names will be put in a hat and the winner picked on Friday 9th September 2011 in the evening.
Win today an iPhone app called “Thai Talking Food Menu http://bit.ly/9SsxLy /via @RichardBarrow
You can enter once in each of the four different ways listed above. Good luck!
I’d definitely use this.
Even easier than the other apps. Order me up one plz!
Interesting app!
Just looking at it is making me hungry!
Hi Richard
Any idea when the iPad version will be released?
thanks
annie
Nom nom. What a brilliant idea. No more ‘farang strength’ (ie bland) Thai food
This looks like a good addition to the Thai apps on my iPhone.
That’s will be useful as names of plates are so long like the menu itself, and so not easy to remember. Seems to be a nice app.
Looks good!
I just tried and it does work on my iPad but it is not HD fullscreen as it is one of those small apps.
I want this app, sick off ordering only pad pak boon fai deng!
would love this
Useful App for dining
Well won’t mind an app to help withy food. For free!
This competition is now over. All the names were put in a hat and one chose. The winner is…. BobThailand. Congratulations.
As Richard says, although a bit limited at this time, it would be a great tool for someone visiting Thailand with no Thai language skills. It’s very well laid out and has natural speech.
There are plenty enough entrees to fill any travelers stomach while on there holiday. At 2 bucks, it won’t blow any iPhone owner’s budget.
Hi Richard, I didn’t win this time and I bought it and I find it great. It could be an idea for the developers to inject in the app some sort of flashcard system, in order we could train to read thai food names in thai script, but also have exercise to recognize food when voice pronounced them.
I let a small good review on the French App Store, in French and English, perhaps they will read it but please give the word to them.