weinoo

The Poly-Sci unit (creative series) available from WS is made in China. If you're going to go Poly Sci, save up a few more hundred bucks and get the pro model...my $.02.

Why do you even discuss this stuff with him ?

Since you'll have to drive through the city, you have quite a few options. What type of food would you like to eat?

Here's mine... Here it is new.

I lay the silpat flat in my sink, sprinkle a little BonAmi on it, and use a sponge or dobie. I do both sides like this and then rinse - works pretty well, but I agree that they never feel as if they're clean.

Silpat is a brand, yes. There are a number of other manufacturers of silicon baking mats. For some reason, I like parchment for baking cookies, but I use the silicon mats for other things occasionally, like roasting vegetables. I'll even put a silicon mat under focaccia, since I tend to bake that at a lower temperature than, say, pizza.

The only way to know is to try it, I guess. I would imagine that there would be some loss of texture, since the vegetables are most likely blanched before they are frozen. And there might be some more liquid that leeches out of them.

I'll never forget the first time, oh so many years ago, that I made a coffee filter out of a plain white paper towel. The rest is history.

In another thread where a few of us are geeking out a bit about espresso making with Rancilio Silva, a discussion might be erupting about being a food geek and whether or not the equipment one uses helps define the term "geek" in this instance. Are you a food geek? Do you need equipment to be a food geek? And...what does your equipment look like?

Anyone have any experience with this? I tried it last night... Pretty good - if a little on the sweet side.

Per KTVU:

But I think the boiler is sealed, sort of like a pressure cooker, so that it can also produce steam for milk. In that case, the water could theoretically boil at a higher temp than 212.

It's all over Chinatown - I'm sure at the market too.

Why?

There's more to come. I mean, you started off by talking to Kinsey...that should've clued you in.

BTW, I think this "how-to" at Home Barista was pretty damn helpful when I started on my espresso path.

Dude, you must be wired! In any event, my PID is set at 224°F. From the little I know, I believe that is the temp at the boiler; the temp at the puck drops down a good 25° (or more), which means I'm pulling the shot at around 197 - 199°F, which is right where I want to be. It's perfect for the coffees, grind and tamp that I pull.

I think you need to up the temp on your PID.

Since this thread is about Miss Silvia and PID, I'd suggest that you can pull a pretty great shot with her. And once you dial it all in, you'll be throwing fewer shots than they do at Blue Bottle, Four Barrel, Ritual, Gimme, Dolcezza, and all the other hoity-toity ICHs that I've been fortunate enough to visit.

Yes, the drip tray on this Rancilio V3 is white. When it's not being splattered. Are you sure there's not some sort of a vinyl shield on that drip tray that is removable? Just looked at it. You're right, it's packing material I forgot to take off. It's been stuck on for weeks. Just removed it. LOL! You know, we Silvia owners have been around for a while... ...so don't take this the wrong way when some of us might raise an eyebrow to what you think are perfect shots! You'll see as the weather changes, you use different coffees (there's some great stuff available via mail order), different grinds, different water temps, different tamps, etc. all challenge you to get the best out of Miss Silvia. Start tamping, for one.

Yes, the drip tray on this Rancilio V3 is white. When it's not being splattered. Are you sure there's not some sort of a vinyl shield on that drip tray that is removable?

Is your drip tray white? Or is that just the photography?

Eat as many oysters and as much Dungeness crab as you can.

There is plenty of argument/discussion re: storage of beans. But I will throw out there that I think buying 8 lbs. at a time is not necessarily the best way to do it. No matter how you store the beans, by the end of the 8th pound (unless you're using 4 lbs. a week) Miss Silvia is not going to be happy with the coffee...and neither will you. Backing up, beans within hours of roasting are not at their best either. They need 36 - 48 hours to gas out before you use them. Then they are good for 5 - 7 days and I store them on the counter in a Mason jar. That said, I generally store small quantities of beans (say 1/3 lb.) in vacuum-sealed packages in the freezer. I take them out the night before I want to use them.

Definitely on the Laird's - it needs to be the bonded. Do you know which chocolate bitters were being used?