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Bialetti Dama

By on Sunday, November 1, 2009

bialetti damaWe got this Bialetti Dama as a wedding gift from Bing. It is a stove-top coffee maker based on the classic Bialetti Moka Express. The  Dama is the newer, slightly modernized model.

The differences are actually pretty subtle: silicone rubber handle and “soft-touch” plastic knob instead of bakelite and a slightly rounded tank instead of octagonal. Both are made of aluminum and are functionally the same.

To make coffee, pour water (preferably filtered) into the tank, drop in the funnel, and put some coffee grounds (espresso grind but not too fine!) on the funnel. Screw the pot onto the tank, put on top of stove on low to medium heat (my preference), and wait as the water boils. Because of the gasket on the tank, the pressure and heat is higher. Once the water boils, steam drives through funnel into the coffee grounds, up the pot stem and into the pot. Remove from heat when, or preferably before, you hear the characteristic gurgling sound.

Pour and serve your freshly-made coffee! Okay, it’s not exactly espresso, since the pressure and heat is not high enough to produce crema and the thick consistency of true espresso. But it’s as close as you can get without spending a lot.

After use and enjoying the coffee, just wash with water. This lets the coffee oils coat and season the metal so that your espresso gets better and better as the years go by. You might want to clean the tank a bit more vigorously though since all the boiling leaves stains and calcium deposits. But, aside from replacing the rubber gasket, that’s about all you need to do to make it last.

A classic piece of coffee gear that you shouldn’t be without.

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General

Wedding Supplier Review: Don Robert

By on Wednesday, October 28, 2009

If you’re looking for vintage cars, there’s practically only one place to go to: Don Robert’s Bridal Cars. I personally preferred a modern bridal car such as a Chrysler 300C (incidentally, they have those too), but there’s a reason why they call it BRIDAL car and not couple car or groom car :P

Our first choice was the 1932 Studebaker. But it was no longer available. Our second choice was the 1953 Adenauer. Guess what? It’s also no longer available. So we settled for the Jaguar Mk II . Word of advice: book far ahead in order to get the car of your choice. Don Robert is nice and easy to talk to so it shouldn’t be a problem.

On the wedding day, the car and driver arrived on the scheduled time. Which is to in time for pictorials. However, the photographers decided not to do any pictorial with the car before the wedding so it ended up just sitting pretty in front of the hotel. And pretty it was. It was clean both inside and out. And though the new-car aura was a long faded memory, everything was completely functional and comfortable. There were no shakes and rattles even from the engine. It definitely was well-maintained.

A word of advice though: One thing with vintage cars is that no matter how well-maintained they are, the more vintage they are, the proportionally higher then chance of breaking down. So make sure to keep a reasonably presentable white car as backup bridal car. My own car, driven by Jim (thanks fafi!) was pressed into service as backup car. We didn’t have a breakdown but the driver was careful and drove slow.

Which takes me to another word of advice: Allocate enough time for the slow drive as well as pictorials on the way when you do your booking. Otherwise you’ll end up having to pay for the excess time and doing a financial transaction from inside the car. It’s like taking a taxi cab ride right on your wedding day. Not nice.

But all in all, good service and experience.

Cost: P12,350 plus P4,000 for excess time of 2 hours
Rating: 4/5

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Wedding Supplier Review: Cardprints

By on Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I’ll say it right away: if you’re looking for a wedding invitation supplier, DO NOT get Cardprints! They absolutely suck. Sure they have a nice display and, at the time we were looking for invitation suppliers, they were offering a seemingly generous anniversary promo.

But after you pay your deposit, you get to a frustrating situation where you can only get to talk to the sales representative at their booth. You can’t talk to their designer(s). But they were so inept that even if you could, it would still be frustrating. They kept doing everything wrong. You correct something, they take their time fixing it, and when they get done, another error pops up. You correct that and the previous error pops back in. It was so frustrating.

We eventually ran out of time and had to go to print with a less-than-satisfactory proof. And we even had to pay a rush fee just so we can make up for the lost time. You have been warned.

Cost: P9,600 plus P1,920 rush fee
Rating: 0/5

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Wedding Supplier Review: Suarez

By on Monday, October 26, 2009

The first shop I visited, when I started looking for an engagement ring was Suarez. I was impressed and they even come highly recommended by Edong. Somehow I ended up not doing business with them. But after a bit of a disappointment with the engagement ring, Michell and I thought we’d play it safe and go to Suarez for the wedding rings.

Almost the whole transaction was done online. I made an inquiry, showed them photos, discussed a bit via email and phone, and made my deposit at a bank.

After a month, the rings were ready for pick up at their branch of our choosing. And we were not disappointed. Heck, we were happy! The rings were just as I envisioned them to be: A band with channel-set 12-diamond accent for Michelle and a simple band for me. And both were excellently made and polished. Even the engraving was detailed and neat.

If we were to choose wedding rings all over again, we’d choose them. In fact, we’re planning to have them remount the engagement ring one of these days. Now that’s saying something.

Cost: Varies greatly with design so this won’t be helpful even if posted
Rating: 4/5

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Wedding Supplier Review: Matus

By on Monday, October 26, 2009

We first encountered Matus at a Wedding Fair at Mega Mall(?) while Michelle and I were shopping for an engagement ring (yes, it was a couple thing :P). They were nice and helpful, their products on display were good, they have good rep, and they had this small but very nice loose, i.e. unmounted, stone.

After checking out other suppliers and comparing with the other ones we’ve found, we decided on getting the engagement ring from them. So on the next wedding fair, we gave them a visit. We wanted the classic Tiffany solitaire setting but it’s not one of their standard designs. However, the assure us that can custom-make it for us.

And I guess that’s the problem. After several visits and discussions aided by sketches and photos, they still couldn’t get it right. You would expect jewelsmiths to at least know how to do the Tiffany solitaire setting no matter how cliché it is, right?

But no. Somehow, they just kept doing it wrong. Maybe it was a case of getting assigned to a novice jewelsmith. Whatever it was, we had to rework and even the final product still had shoddy workmanship.

Perhaps, I’m a tough customer, but I’m paying good money so I expect what I get to be good. What I got isn’t bad. But it isn’t that good either.

Cost: Varies greatly with design so this won’t be helpful even if posted
Rating: 2/5

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