World Foodspotting Day is already upon us in some parts of the world, and we're excited to celebrate our first birthday with all of you. Last we checked, there are 99 eat-ups happening across 25 countries - that's huge!

In honour of such a happy occasion, we're giving away this special Birthday badge on Foodspotting :) All you have to do to make this cuteness yours is follow our Happy Birthday, Foodspotting guide and contribute a sighting of cake - and we're not picky, so any cake you fancy will do!

Remember: if you're going to a Foodspotting Day eat-up, we want to see pictures (surprise, surprise) both of your food, and of the group! So however you're documenting your fun - be it photo, video or song - send them to us. We're doing a round-up of Foodspotting Day next week here on our blog and your eat-up might make it in!

In case you have not heard, it's Foodspotting's first birthday this Saturday! The Foodspotting New York team is currently flying all the way to the land of San Francisco. It's true - Soraya and I are live blogging from the sky! This is the future, people. That and ordering Chex Mix from a touch screen. Below is the aftermath. We were feeling peckish...

While we have your attention, we wanted to make sure to get out the word that we're hiring! In particular, we're looking for:

• Mobile Developers (iPhone, Android or both!)
• Rails Developers
• Visual Designer
• Frontend Developers

We are based in San Francisco, CA and are ideally looking for people to work side by side with us in our studio loft in South Park, but if you're amazing and live elsewhere, we'd still be open to talking. We offer competitive salaries, company-paid healthcare, dental and vision, stock options, plenty of paid vacation, and, of course, lots of opportunities to eat amazing food.

We'll be posting more detailed job descriptions on our Jobs page soon, but in the meantime, send WORK EXAMPLES (screenshots, links to apps you've worked on, wireframes, etc. -- explain your contribution) to jobs@foodspotting.com.

Mobile Developers (iPhone, Android or Both)

iPhone and Android developers who are relentless about details that will make Foodspotting the easiest and most enjoyable way to stumble upon good food wherever you go. Show us that you've built, shipped and refined dynamic apps for iPhone, Android and/or other platforms. We want to see pixel-perfect user interfaces, streamlined code, and seamless interactions between client and server. Bonus points if: You can develop for more than one platform - or aren't afraid to try - and create apps that look and feel native to each. You tackle the complexities of location-based app development head on, like managing battery life, working with large data sets, and targeting information based on context and location.

Rails Developers

A data-loving backend developer or all-around Ruby hacker who can transform Foodspotting into the intelligent and context-aware "Pandora for Food" that we have in mind. Show us that you've built, tested, optimized and scaled Ruby (on and off rails) applications and web services that are a delight to use in every way: Fast, straightforward, elegant and powerful. Bonus points for experience working with geodata, crafting recommendations and reputation algorithms, synthesizing activity streams, implementing game mechanics, integrating with external platforms (especially Facebook), developing targeted marketing or advertising platforms.

Visual Designer

A UX-minded visual designer who can transform mockups into "Apple-quality" interfaces that people love to use and that communicate what Foodspotting is all about. Show us that you can take visual design from high-level concept to production-ready assets and icons for any platform: Web, mobile, even print. Be able to explain the rationale behind your design decisions. We're looking for people who are more than just visual designers, and experience in any of the following would be particularly irresistible: Frontend development, crafting clever marketing campaigns, architecting interactive products and services, creating infographics or illustrations and communicating concepts through sketches.

Frontend Developer

A user experience-minded and visually attuned frontend developer whose interests go deeper than the View. You could build Foodspotting from scratch (if you had to) and have awesome ideas and plans to take "location-based food" to the next level. Show us that you can take ideas and PSDs and run with them, harnessing standards-based, cross-browser HTML/CSS and JavaScript to produce elegant interfaces and code. You have extensive experience working in application frameworks (rails, django) and have been known to dabble in the Controllers and Models.

Remember when we said that 2011 is going to be a great year? Well, nothing like kicking it off with our big announcement of $3 million in Series A funding led by BlueRun Ventures, an early investor in PayPal. Needless to say we're thrilled and excited. Many thanks to the lovely folks at AllThingsD, CNET News, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, SFGate, and Fast Company for writing about us. Look, we're famous!

Earlier this week, we had the brilliant idea to poll you guys about the things you eat (or chug) first thing in the morning. We can all use a bit of breakfast inspiration, so here's a sampling of the replies we got. Let us know what your morning food ritual is in the comments! AC

P.S. Click on the tweets. They'll open to that Foodspotter's Twitter profile. Consider this our version of Follow Friday. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Click here to open in iTunes.

Teddy's sister just told us that we're an App Store staff favorite! (She doesn't even have an iPhone...) The Foodspotting team is doing our bicoastal dance in our respective cities. If you don't have our app, here's your chance. Join our party and download our ace iPhone app or sign up for our Android beta!

Foodspotting turns one on January 15th, so we are hereby dubbing that day World Foodspotting Day! To celebrate, we're working with our friends at Meetup.com to encourage everyone to organize meetups or, really, eatups. We'd love to have Foodspotters around the world gather together to do what we do best: Eat and spot with friends :)

Looking back on the past year, we achieved quite a bit:
- Launched the website
- Kicked off the iPhone app and Android app
- More than tripled the size of our team (from 2 to 7)
- Grew from 500 spotters to more than 500,000 iPhone app downloads
- Worked with world-renowned partners including Travel Channel and Zagat
- Received many accolades like Apple's iTunes App Store Best of 2010 in food and travel, as well as listed in TIME Magazine's 50 Best Websites of 2010

So join us in raising a camera, a fork and a glass in honour of a fantastic year by attending or organizing an eatup. It's simple: If your city doesn't already have an eatup, just pick your favourite restaurant that's good for groups and add your eatup to the Meetup.com page. Email me if you're leading an eatup so I can send you some schwag to give out.

And if you're in the Bay Area, the Foodspotting team is hosting a party that night of January 15th, so save the date and stay tuned for more details! FT

Love Foodspotting? Put your town on the map by hosting an eatup!

Happy New Year! Since Foodspotting is all about finding good food for all cravings and occasions, we got to thinking about lucky foods that people eat to ensure 365 great days. Some people eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day to bring prosperity, for example. And according to Epicurious.com, many cultures will eat pork because pigs move forward and therefore symbolize progress. Other lucky foods to eat today are cakes, cooked greens, and fish. Which "lucky foods" do you eat on New Year's Day?