Finally, There’s An App For Noodle Soup Lovers

Finally, There’s An App For Noodle Soup Lovers — And It’s Great

If you’re a noodle soup enthusiast — and if you’re not, you really should be — here’s an app that’ll get you salivating.

“Wait, there’s an app for noodle soup???” I hear you say…

Yes, that’s right. Believe it or not noodle soup is a delightful culinary genre in its own right, not just a dish. Whether it’s pho from Vietnam, miso from Japan or guay tiew from Thailand, noodle soup is full of variety, depth and flavor.

Worry not about the various different options though, because iOS app Noodler is here to cover you. Beyond a beautiful design that features anime-inspired illustrations, this ‘oracle’ app is packed with meal ideas — more than three million soup ‘designs’ in fact — each of which comes with a list of ingredients and cooking directions.

You’ll be greeted with a randomly generated soup idea right when you open the app. If that strikes your interest, simply tap on the bowl to be taken through to the instructions page. Otherwise, hit refresh and new combination will appear for your perusal. I repeated the process a few times before I found something that looked right up my alley.

The app is the work of New York-based writer/illustrator Michele Humes, who studied at the French Culinary Institute, and Joshua Sierles, a developer and designer who is located in Sevilla, Spain.

“Noodler is my love letter to noodle soup and dedicated to showcasing the beauty of the form,” Humes told TechCrunch via email. “We made it a true app with a discovery element, rather than passing off an ebook as an app — in order to showcase the versatility of the noodle soup format.”

Apple, for one, seems to agree. The company has featured Noodler multiple times in its China-based app store — which is how it came to our attention — but so far it is yet to showcase the app in other parts of the world.

Those without an iPhone are not covered by Noodler right now, but Sierles said work has already begun on an Android version, which we can expect to see soon.

“Since we built the app with React Native, a relatively new cross-platform framework from Facebook, this is turning out to be relatively easy to do,” he explained. (Hopefully not famous last words here.)

Right now, Noodler is available free of charge, but the plan is to monetize by limiting the number of available recipes and offering a one-time purchase to unlock the full library. That, my noodle soup loving friends, is enough of a reason to go look at the app today — you’ll find it in the App Store here.

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