Steak and red wines for Easter

After our hiking adventures earlier today, we felt we needed to treat ourselves to a nice dinner.  Specifically, a steak dinner.  So... a call was placed to book ourselves a table, and after going back to our respective homes to clean ourselves up, we reconvened at the Grand Hyatt Steakhouse.

Hello Kitty's eyes lit up as soon as she saw the presence of our favorite Spanish beef listed on the menu.  The three of us agreed to share 3 different orders of steak, plus a couple of starters and sides.

Garlic bread - this place is known for their good garlic bread, and they certainly looked pretty damn good... but I was a little disappointed today.  These just didn't have enough kick from the garlic.

Prawn cocktail, cocktail and louis sauce - apparently both Hello Kitty and Diva love prawn cocktails as part of their childhood memories.  I myself don't suffer from the same nostalgia, but at least the prawns are nice and fresh.

Bone marrow, herb salad, capers, shallot jam, sourdough toast - we were never gonna pass up something like this!  We scooped out the bone marrow and spread it on the sourdough, then added a little bit of totally yummy shallot jam.  The richness of the marrow, with the right amount of seasoning and herb crust, was just heavenly.

But there was an extra piece of garlic bread leftover, and no one else seemed to want it, so I took it upon myself to spread some marrow on top of this piece of bread - which was, of course, infinitely better than just a plain slice of sourdough.

Galician 12 year Rubia Gallega Tenderloin, 10 oz. - my favorite breed of cattle ever since the Man in White T-shirt introduced it to me.  Dry aged for 90 days instead of the 120 days or more I'm used to having, so there wasn't that funky, blue cheese flavor that I love so much.

But the meat still had plenty of flavor, and a nice, tender texture thanks to the dry aging.

Galician 12 year Rubia Gallega Striploin, 12 oz. - also dry aged for 90 days.

This was my favorite tonight.  I preferred the slightly firmer texture, and better flavors coming from the strip of fat running down the side.

Dry aged Irish free range rib eye by John Stone, 14 oz. - dry aged for 60 days.

Comparatively, this piece of meat was more bland, but still fairly decent in the grand scheme of things.

Thrice cooked duck fat potato fried - very sinful.

Macaroni and cheese, aged white cheddar - the use of very short sections of macaroni was interesting, but I found the powdery sauce annoying.  Hello Kitty believes that the roux had separated and I was tasting the graininess of the flour, and I'd say she was right.

Creamed spinach, nutmeg - this seemed almost like spinach purée, which was something I'm not really used to when it comes to creamed spinach.

After the kind of day we've had, a little was definitely in order. Diva and I each brought a bottle...

1991 Opus One - very smooth on the palate.  Smoky nose, clearly a little "old", showing some cedar and woodsy notes along with some coffee and savory notes.  After about 20 minutes in the decanter, some sweetness showed up, along with good acidity.  Started to fade after 1½ hours in the decanter, showing a little cooked fruit.

2003 Canon La Gaffelière - really sweet and a little jammy, almost luscious.  Showing berries with some smokiness underneath, along with a little forest and coffee notes.  Beautiful.