For years I've been defending street food. No, I'm not talking about edible items that someone else dropped onto the road and still look good; I'm referring to the hotdog carts, fry trucks and sandwich makers. Now with the Eat St. app, I am able to hunt them down and find out ahead of time if a place is worth the hype.

If the name Eat St. sounds familiar to you, that's because it probably is. This app is in part a companion to the Eat St. TV show that airs on the Food Network in Canada. The show essentially highlights street food vendors and their creations.

As for the app, it has a purpose for both the consumer and the owners of these vendors. For the consumer, it offers a collection of pertinent information regarding food trucks, carts and stands throughout North America, while the owners have a little place that they can use to promote their businesses and get customer feedback.

Once an individual enters the app and grants it permission to use his current location, nearby vendors are listed. However, he is not bound by the discovered city and can even search a place much further abroad.

When it comes to searching for places in specific regions, one can do so by searching for specific dishes or the specific name of a vendor. For either, he is then presented with relative search results.

Once the person selects a given vendor, he is briefed on just how far away the place is in terms of miles or kilometers from his current location, and is given the ability to check out a map of exactly where the vendor is. As well, and perhaps most importantly, menus, which usually feature a photo of each dish, a brief description of it, as well as pricing information are also presented.

In terms of participating within the app, the can either flip through it anonymously and seek out certain spots, but in order to access most features (like adding photos, making tips, flagging location errors, and creating a "Crave" list of favourite food items) he has to sign up for a free Eat St. app account. He can create one through his social network accounts, or by providing an e-mail address and password.

Apart from the food vendor search of the app, it also offers users the chance to get more familiar with the Eat St. program through trailers and clips from recent episodes. There's also a direct link up to the Food Channel Website and the opportunity to view the station's programming schedule.

For those that don't always like the cozy confines of restaurant dining, or have no qualms about buying food of a motor vehicle or cart, Eat St. serves up a rather enjoyable and useful app. I can't always commit to using an app that much after I review it, but in this circumstance, I can say that my hunger and my hands will certainly put it to use the next time I have a craving for some street meat, or a greasy but needed late night snack.

Sure, I could delve deep for the healthier options, but come on, who does that when it comes to eating out of what could've once been a mail truck?

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