By Rachel Raczka
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Epicurious
By: Conde Nast Digital
Price: Free
Platforms: Tested on iPhone, available for iPad, Android, Nook Color, Windows Phone, and Kindle Fire
Should you get it?: Yes.

Let me preface this review by saying: I cook a lot. And I bake more than I cook. So I spent a fair amount of time using this app. But don't let that scare you away; I recommend the app for the experienced cook as well as the kitchen novice.

Touted as a portable version of the popular website that proclaims it's "for people who love to eat," the Epicurious app features the same seemingly endless supply of recipes sourced from the Conde Nast treasure trove of the likes of Bon Appetit, Self, and Gourmet magazines.

By Swati G. Sharma
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Matchbook
By: Matchbook Inc.
Price: Free
Platforms: iPhone
Should you get it?: For anyone who likes going out, this is a definite yes

It's Friday night. As usual, I have plans with a group of friends, and again, as usual, no one can decide where to go.

But no worries - it's the Matchbook app to the rescue!

I open the application on my iPhone, and voila! A list of restaurants that I jotted down - either recommended to me by a friend or a spot I walked past at some point - appears on my screen.

The Matchbook app provides a simple service: It keeps track of restaurants, bars, or cafes you wish to explore at a later date.

By Joe Allen-Black
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Hello Vino
By: Hello Vino
Available for: iPhone and Android
Price: Free
Should you get it? Yes, if you don't know where to begin in picking out wines.

Pairing food and wine is an art that I wish I were good at on my own. Sure, I can do the basics of making sure to pair my meat with something red, and fruit with whites. But anything more advanced (like exactly WHICH red to pair) is not my specialty.

Now, thanks to the app Hello Vino, it doesn't have to be.

By Rachel Raczka
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Martha Stewart Cocktails
By: Callaway Digital Arts
Available on: iPad, iPhone
Price: $0.99
Should you get it? Absolutely. And then invite me over for drinks.

The desire to play hostess kicked in when I hit my early 20s. Sterling silver serving trays, gilded rim cocktail tumblers, impractical but aesthetically adorable paper straws in every color of the rainbow ... I felt well-equipped to hand out the swizzle sticks and call in the troops. Unfortunately, my specialty - gin and tonic with extra limes - was not exactly the height of cocktail sophistication.

So I turned to my muse in most situations like this one: Martha. (Martha, Martha, Martha.)

By Joe Allen-Black
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Untappd
Company: Untappd LLC
Price: Free
Platforms: Apple, Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre. Also a website
Should you get it? If you like beer and want to explore new ones -- definitely. If you drink the same thing all the time, it'll be dull.

I'm terrible at remembering what beers I like. I'll remember flavor and color (maybe a logo if I'm lucky), but an actual name? Well, that gets lost in my brain somewhere around calculus and all the state capitals in alphabetical order.

So when my brother introduced me to Untappd, I saw a chance to make my phone remember beer for me. It was Foursquare for beer drinking, which, in my mind, is taking two awesome things and combining them in the best kind of way.