Graz: Happy 30s!
What could be possibly better than a hearty New York porterhouse of dry-aged American beef from Nebraska? Hardly much!
So, on Wednesday, I decided to celebrate my 30th Birthday with one of those. I love steaks, anyway….
Apparently there are very few steakhouses in Europe that import beef from the US, luckily there’s one in Graz – the Steak Boutique, thanks to the owners American wife, who also makes their New York Cheese cake herself.
I’ve been there a couple of times before, and loved it, and that’s why I wanted to have birthday dinner there. But things do change, as we all know…
We started with Beef Tartar, it was ok, served with a quail egg and avocado paste (slightly too sour and didn’t seem to make the tartar better), no mistakes, but nothing more. Well, at least the steak shall be good…
But, when it came, there was hardly much pink colour inside the meat, which we ordered to be medium-rare. Yes, they took it back and a new one came, slightly pinker, but, a bit cold…
A typical mistake when oven is involved after pan-frying. Frankly, I cook PERFECT steaks myself, and I would never finish it with the oven.
Well well well, that’s life again, we’re all destined to get disappointed every once in a while (if not more often). However, there was still the bottle of Château Mouton Rothschild of my birth year I saved for this day, with mid-flowering for all three varieties noted exactly on 18 June,
Being one of the most difficult years from the 80s, I didn’t expect THAT much; but this wine really did surprise. Nose of typical mature Bordeaux, not tired, no cork failure, deep blackcurrant aroma and tobacco, hints of pleasant wet straw, so…ooo fine yet still vivid and powerful, full-bodied, but not aggressive, silky and still slightly tannic, perfectly balanced with a long and deep finish… What a wine, what a moment of delights…
I did say that ‘the simplest joys are the best’, but that will exclude a nice bottle of Bordeaux… Wine, after all, ‘is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.’ –
According to Ernest Hemingway; and I think he had it absolutely right…
Address: Bindergasse 1, Graz, Austria