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Meta Flavor 1.3 Released

New features include:

- Enhanced user interface with stylized “X-ray” look & feel.

- Improved Artificial Intelligence, learns your taste better with every rating and review

- Share over 4 million dishes with friends with greater ease

- Take a peak and check out the reviews and contributions of the  most active members. 

- Customize your profile

- Easily add new restaurants and menu items

- Check out your friend’s flavor compatibility to see how closely you and your friend’s tastes match

- Help out those less fortunate by contributing to Action Against Hunger, an international network committed to saving the lives of malnourished children and their families.

 Click here to get it now from iTunes!

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Add citrus for the new year.

If you’re looking to eat healthy while adding flavor to your dishes try adding some citrus. Oranges, lemons and limes can add a boost of flavor for practically any marinade for red meats, chicken and fish. And if you’re looking to go lighter on processed sugars and fats give up that bowl of ice cream and try some citrus with strawberries and kiwi for a tasty fruit salad.

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2009 – Year in review

This year we cherry picked from some of our favorite sources to give you a broad overview of some of the biggest trends in food and dining for 2009. While there’s some variations some common themes include more thrifty money-conscious diners, increased food regulations and both Peruvian and Middle Eastern cuisine going mainstream.

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The Food Channel

1. Home on the Range: More Thrifty Diners

2. Foodie 2.0:  From iPhone apps to twittering, an increased participation online by those who love food

3. Going Green: An increased number of restaurants go green to attract eco-conscious guests

Read the rest…

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Bon Appétit

1. Ingredient of the Year: Ricotta

2. Destination of the Year: Lima, Peru

3. Cuisine of the Year: New Southern

Read the rest.

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And lastly will take a look at Epicurious. See for yourself if you think their Top 10 Food Predictions came true for 2009. Here’s the top 3…

1. ”Value” is the new “Sustainable” – These days, the economy dictates our cooking and shopping decisions: Bargain are in, no matter where they come from.

2. The Compost Pile is the new Flower Garden - Growing your own now refers to vegetables, not just herbs, and that will in turn help feed the gardener’s compost pile. Live worm garnishes, however, will not make it to the house salad.

3. Peruvian is the new Thai - You thought Peruvian cuisine was all about seviche, maybe? Guess again: Peru boasts culinary influences from Spanish, Basque, African, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, and British immigrants. Pisco Sour, anyone?

See all the predictions…

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Man’s tacos, life threatened by Machete wielding mugger

About 10PM, Sunday a masked mugger off Villa and Fulton Street in Chicago darted from behind a vacant building demanding a bag of tacos. Using a machete to intimidate, the victim did not put up a fight but simply gave the tacos up.

“He was walking back (to his vehicle) with his tacos. A guy came out with a machete and took his tacos,” said Elgin Deputy Chief Jeff Swoboda in an NBC Chicago interview.

Our hearts go out to the victim.

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Tune your Recommendations

Want better dish and restaurant recommendations? After you’ve signed in launch the search application by doing a search for something in your area. Located in the red search bar you’ll see an icon with a person and 5 stars underneath them. Click this icon and give a rating to the cuisines you like.

You can also let us know how important certain amenities or aspects of ambiance are to you. For example you can rate the importance of payment types accepted, available parking even dress code. As you tune your recommendations we’ll be able to give you smarter recommendations based off your unique personal preferences.

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Tip: Sort restaurants by rating, location or alphabetically

Inside the search application you can now sort restaurants by rating, location or alphabetically. Discover the top rated  restaurants with a single click.

Simply click the sort option to the bottom left hand side of the map and select how you’d like to sort. See it in action.

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Hello Hollywood!

We’d like to take a minute and send out a quick shout to everyone in the Hollywood and greater LA area. Your city now boasts thousands of independent restaurants. From cheap but tasty taco shops to ritzy hollywood hang outs.

With the City of Angels now online with hundreds of thousands of menu items, stunning images, and iconic logos – there’s more ways than ever to satisfy your cravings. West coast domination is now inevitable.

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Sweet Tweets

You can now folluw us on Twitter! Go to http://twitter.com/metaflavor to get the latest Meta Flavor news and updates on the go.

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Restaurateurs – Make the most out of your free exposure.

Here’s a couple quick and easy tips for restaurant owners looking to attract more guests on Meta Flavor.

Note: if you haven’t claimed your restaurant’s profile yet click here to sign up.

1. Complete your profile: with a completed profile your restaurant will appear more frequently when guests use the filter to find restaurants that match their needs. A completed profile with a short description, review,  chef bio, signature dish and what you’re famous for gives you more opportunities to connect with potential patrons.

2. Post your menu: upload your menu items with prices and vivid descriptions. With your menu posted on Meta Flavor you’ll be found everytime a person searches for any dish you serve.

3. Upload Menu photos: imagine you’re craving some carne asada tacos and you see a dozen restaurants in your area that serve what you’re looking for. Three restaurants show images of the delicious tacos, seven didn’t bother to upload them. Chances are you’ll consider going to one of the three that has an amazing image of what you’re serving over the other seven. With 100,000 menus and 4 million items on Meta Flavor, posting images of your menu items is one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd.

Don’t know about the new Meta Flavor app that showcases your menu on the iPhone for free? Check it out!

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iPhone App Tips: Review/Rate Dishes & Restaurants

One of the cool things about Meta Flavor for the iPhone is you can go beyond a restaurant review and review/rate actual dishes served at the restaurant.

When viewing a dish tap the “Add a Review” option to review the item. If you don’t have the time or inclination to write a review simply tap to give a 1 – 5 rating below the item (when viewing a single item), or to the right of the item (when viewing an entire menu).

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