Cool Stuff I Found on the Internet: Recipe Saving, Drinkable Everything, Pretty Pictures, and Menu Psychology

Happy Wednesday everybody. I’m taking this lazy (for me) vacation week to launch a new series I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’m calling it “Cool Stuff I Found on the Internet,” because I am a creative naming genius.

Every once in a while I find a site or article deserving of an entire post’s worth of discussion, but far more often I found something neat that grabs my attention that doesn’t merit nearly that much discussion. So that’s what this is for: Cool food-related bookmarks that I’ve never gotten around to sharing in a full post.

Up this week: Tips for how to save and organize recipes that you find online, food for people with their jaws wired shut, a gorgeous blog aggregator, and the way restaurants design menus to get you to order what they want.

Saving and Organizing Digital Recipes
I’m a little bit Type A, and I’m a lot Type A about certain things. In an ideal world, all of my recipes would be stored in some kind of tag-based online database, but the product I want just isn’t out there right know. I once actually – and no I’m really not kidding – tried to build a SQL database for my recipes, but I got bored and gave up. I’m still looking for a good way to organize  all of the tasty things that I find and bookmark online, but this is a decent start. I don’t have a Mac, so Quicksilver is unavailable to me, but I think the way she suggest using del.icio.us is interesting. I’d love to hear from other obsessives out there who have good ideas.

Food for People with their Jaws Wired Shut
The blog Jaws Wired Shut must be a godsend for people in its target demographic. I’ve never made one of their recipes, but I love how well they’ve defined a niche for themselves and stuck with it. They don’t post regularly, but the site is still alive; and like my high school biology teacher said of elephant guns, “it’s not something you’re likely to need often, but when you need it, you’ll need it rather badly.”

A Pretty Website Guaranteed to Make You Hungry
Just when I think my photography is getting better,  I find a site like this that aggregates gorgeous photos from food blogs all around the web, all of which put my pics to shame.  Just look at it. You’ll be hooked.

The Theories Behind Menu Design and An Example
Think a restaurant’s menu is just a pretty way of presenting what the chef is cooking? Think again, boy-o. Menus are complex and carefully thought-out ways to get you to spend more money. Based on psychological research and created with the help of “menu engineers,” menus take advantage of how your brain works to get you to order those high margin dishes that keep restaurants in business. The first link is an article from the times that gives a good intro to menu science and the second is an interactive analysis of the Balthazar menu from New York Magazine. Both are fascinating.

That’s it for now. I hope you like the links, and please share any delicious (de.lic.ious) links you may stumble upon. Or StumbleUpon. Happy Holidays.