melkor

The pre-soak will compact whatever grinds are loose in the basket, but I generally just dump them into the knock box.

The water is more likely to go around the edge of the puck if you tap the pf after packing the grinds, it breaks the seal at the outside edge. Those 57mm hydrolic tampers are what you want for a 58mm pf - the swift also has a slightly smaller tamper than the basket it uses.

What could be better?

Sure, but honestly I don't think any of these have been planned more than an hour in advance. Given that there are dozens of these trucks all over the area and we're here most of the time, we'll schedule it around you - when do ya want to come up this way?

Most recently it's been a taco truck in geyserville, one in vallejo, and one in napa.

Renwood is a pretty good choice for a winery out that way. Placerville has a few good spots for food, though they seem to be different every time I'm passing through. Z-Pies wasn't bad last time I was there (during ski season).

On second thought, we could even have a ancillary taco truck club for people who don't like mexican food but want to take part. They could gather at taco trucks and ask people if they like what they are eating, take pictures, and post reports - that way everyone could participate!

Since when is it a private taco truck club? As rancho_gordo has said, we've tried inviting other folks along and no one is ever interested. If ya know of a good truck, go visit, take pictures, post about it.

"Tacos el Coronel" - Geyserville, CA: This truck obviously has a better view than the previous bunch did. A little more expensive than yesterday, a bit cheaper than Friday. carnitas, al pastor on the first plate, chicken on the next, cabeza next, and carne asada on the last. All the tacos came with sauteed onions, which is a nice addition to the plate. It's hard to say if this was better than Guadalajara 1 yesterday, but it certainly was better than Michoacan on Friday.

More humid weather needs a slightly more coarse ground coffee for perfect shots, I suspect if you set your grinder slightly finer on clear/dry days you'll get the same quality espresso you get on overcast/humid days now.

Our most recent meal was off-menu. The kitchen sent out food, the sommelier provided wines to match, 4 hours later we were very very full, a bit tipsy, and a little tired. It's a toss-up between yukon gold potato ravioli with a black butter truffle sauce and a spectacular roasted quail for the best dish of the night.

I've been to Max's at least half a dozen times before moving out here, and without a doubt the food at Max's isn't BBQ. That said, last time I was there they had really good garlic smashed potatoes and the steaks they serve aren't awful - which is as good as you get in Red Hook.

Welcome to eGullet . I agree with ya on the dish-oriented cooking classes, but I think for a Braising 101 type class the venue options are far more limited, it would have to be done in smaller groups and likely would need to be in an environment where small groups each have access to a range for some hands on work. The eGCI classes here on eGullet are as close as I've found to a workable solution for a large group to learn cooking fundamentals.

I had a bottle of bin 389 with chicken pot pie last night, they went well together - I'd be perfectly happy serving it with a roast chicken.

Defrost it and see if it's picked up any odd smells from the freezer, if it didn't - I'd use it.

Having eating at Becasse, Tetsuya's, Bistro Lulu, and a few less memorable places in the past week I'd strongly recommend Becasse to anyone in the area. Everything about our meal there was excellent. Friendly and competent front of the house, nice wine list, and every dish the kitchen sent out was not only cleverly plated but also very good.

We had dinner at Tetsuya's earlier in the week, some of the dishes were excellent (the ocean trout with kombu was by far the best) others were simply good. We ordered a bottle of an older australian riesling with our first few courses, the staff was kind enough to evenly distribute the grit from the bottom of the bottle into both MsMelkor and my glasses evenly and for some reason felt the need to comment on the 'residual sugar' in the wine when she collected the chunk-coated empty glasses. The service overall was poor, the desserts were all excellent. Becasse was more consistant with the quality of their dishes and the service was far far better. Overall, I'd say Tetsuya's is worth visiting at least once, though I'm not sure I'm interested in returning.

In CA it's been the Michael Mina, then the French Laundry and then Baraka.

And did you manage to find anyone living in Paso calling their town 'Rowblez'?

We were there the next night (Monday) for the first time since they closed for renovations - we were there the last night they were open also. The restaurant is better than ever, the wine list is much improved and the food is absolutely top-notch. All of our meals at tfl have ranged in price from $300-$500 per person. It certainly isn't cheap, but it's worth every cent.

A sparkling mildly tannic heavy red wine with some residual sugar - ick. Sparkling Shiraz serves roughly the same purpose in Australia as White Zinfandel does in the US. It's really not worth seeking out.

Having had dinner at Michael Mina tonight I'd say the place is a mess. The staff was all over the place - either in each other’s way or nowhere to be found. The wine list is impressive though the markup is quite high; there are good deals to be had if you look hard enough. The food, while conceptually sound, was poorly executed: the texture of almost every item was off - overcooked pasta, undercooked peas, overcooked carrots, overcooked fish, and oddly chewy Kobe beef. The tuna tartare, although it had a good texture, was at best confused, and most of it was left on the plate. On the bright side, the sauces were all excellent; the dishes all were well thought out and most will likely be quite successful once the kitchen has spent more time working together. At this point the quality of the food and awkward service aren’t worth the $150+ per plate cost. I’m much more excited to return to Gary Danko than to Michael Mina. (Our tab for 4 people was $700 including 1 bottle of wine purchased from the list and 1 bottle of wine brought with us, 2 glasses of dessert wine, the 3 course menu, three $10 supplements for the lobster salad & kobe beef, sparkling water, tax, and 20% tip)

Your best bets in the area area Pride for Viognier and Sinskey for Pinot.

That makes sense to me, unless someone objects in the reasonably near future I'll make it so.

I know the meal I had there last month was pretty poor, does that count?