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About 3 years ago, my cousin Peter introduced me to this amazing cajun/creole restaurant that’s hidden inside a Vegas hotel frequented by locals & seniors called the Oyster Bar in Palace Station. When I adventured back to Vegas for the 4th of July weekend, I was determined to get everyone to try it. The bar behind the restaurant serves $3 Bloody Mary’s & $0.99 margaritas as Jimmy, Josh, Kelcie, & I learned as we waited 2 hours in line for the most delicious red bowl of seafood goodness that awaited us. It was my third time at the Oyster Bar & everyone else’s first, so I was there on a mission: to figure out all the ingredients they use to make this bowl of perfection.
This recipe is by no means a cheap recipe if you don’t already have most of the ingredients, but it’s definitely the best recipe you’ll find out on the web so far. I don’t mean to be over confident about my recipes, but the ones I’ve seen out there are so off! I mean, one uses cocktail sauce for the base – are you kidding me? *facepalm* No. It’s a tomato stew with seafood in it. Using cocktail sauce to make a creole sounds like you’re all going to have a bad time. So, while this recipe is not exactly the same, it’s a slightly healthier version that is delicious, but lacks the richness of the original. If you want the original richness, use heavy cream, 2 Tbsp of flour (thickening agent), & a whole stick of butter. Check out my recipe & tell me what you think!
Seafood Pan Roast
So, you could wait hours in line for this or you could try making it at home yourself. It’s the perfect crockpot recipe too, so you won’t need a bunch of pans to make it. I also updated my watermark! I felt like my other one was just alright, so I tried to personalize it a little more with my attempt at a “cute” hand-drawn bee. Let me know what you think because I want a watermark that I don’t feel the need to change every 3 months.
Ooooh La, La!
On the Sunday of Josh’s graduation weekend–yes, we made it a weekend long affair because his family was in town–his brother Brett, his girlfriend Jessica, & I all went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.
But, What About The Food?
We picked up Josh’s cousin Brad to have lunch in Laguna Beach. I probably wouldn’t eat at that restaurant again if I were in the area. That Soba Salad was most definitely not soba. I am so disappoint.
Gimme Tourist Photos
Satisfied? Short post today. I’ll be back with more recipes & photos from Josh’s weekend graduation celebration. I’m so proud of him for earning his Doctor of Philosophy (aka the blood, sweat, & tears that is the PhD) in Political Science & thrilled about his new job at the University of North Florida. He also gets an award for “Best Boyfriend of the Year” too. We’ll see how he does next year.
Pics or It Didn’t Happen
Sheesh, so demanding. Here’s Josh & me at Seal Beach right before dinner in his graduation cap & gown. He’s got a little hood around his neck, which means he can now be formally addressed as “Dr. Josh” – just don’t ask him for medical advice.
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I made all of these link buttons for the winners of my giveaway, so I hope you like them. Didn’t really want to risk someone making something with comic sans, so…I made them all for you. Congrats, y’all!
I can imagine how great Oyster Bar must be with a 2-hour wait being worth it. That’s how I feel for a ~30 minute wait for In-N-Out!
Your seafood pan roast looks delicious! Even more with the dish having more “content” than “filler” (soup); but that’s just me. Your hand drawn bee has that cuteness attached to it so you did a good job at making a personalized watermark.
You and Josh look cute together! And the food you all had for lunch looks delicious. Though the soba salad looks more like a “wonton chips shred” salad or something. I’ve always wanted to make an ahi tartare but haven’t found what “the real” tuna sashimi is in the sushi section.
Congratulations to Josh and his doctorate!
Hah yes, I agree. Content over filler any day!
As for the tuna grade sashimi, you’ll have to go to a Japanese grocery store or an Asian supermarket & browse their sashimi grade fish. Sashimi grade means that the fish has been flash frozen to kill parasites & bacteria & then thawed. Tuna’s mercury content is really high though, so I wouldn’t recommend making large bowls of it everyday! Ahi tuna has some of the highest mercury content too. Pregnant women are cautioned not to even consume tuna at all during pregnancy! But anyway, just go for the sashimi grade tuna in the tuna section. It’s not like it’s not real. But if you want to be healthier, try using salmon or scallops for a tartare. If it has a sticker that says “sashimi grade” it’s okay for you to eat it raw.
i wanted to reply your comment on my post on the post itself but thought you wouldn’t bother so i’ll just write it here. um, first off when i said my friend’s dog is “evil and not cute and smelly”, it was just my sarcastic humor playing. i’m an animal lover and even i think a dirty stray dog is adorable so it was just a sarcastic joke…in case you didn’t pick my humor (which lots of people don’t most of the time because they either don’t get me or misinterpret the tone in my words) so yeah i was just being sarcastic because that’s my humor. you’re right; my friend’s dog IS cute. all dogs are. some people just don’t get the way i joke sometimes, sigh.
(i was so scared and anxious about this whole misunderstanding that i feel the need to write an explanation here wtf my apologies)
ANYWAY.
i’ve always wanted to tell my mom to check your recipe and cook something based on your recipe but she’s too lazy lol everyone in my house is too lazy for fancy meal like this (we all think your recipe is fancy because we’re the kind of people who like to chinese stir-fry or just poach boil everything HAHA)
i don’t remember the last time i went to an aquarium. wait, i don’t think i actually fancy the idea either. i prefer going to the ocean directly and snorkel or dive… i…kind of dislike the idea of seeing animals behind bars and stuff 🙁
the photos though, they’re nice. the octopus scares me though. octopuses scare me with their uh….”feet”
jellyfish is fascinatingggg *o* uwoohh so interestingggg~ you did a good job capturing it too! and the penguins are adorable TToTT with their short feet and flappy arms <3
it's so nice to walk around the beach with friends. i don't have friends who like nature so they're all "wtf alice don't drag me into your tarzan shenanigan" whenever i ask them "hey wanna go to the beach or somewhere and be like crazy adventurers?" T___T
p.s: i'm back to my blogspot url because my domain died since i forgot to pay lmao so yeah, just use this one for now
Aw haha it’s okay. I don’t make these recipes very often because like you said, they are fancy. This one is surprisingly not too time consuming though, but it requires a BUNCH of ingredients to make it amazing.
I’ll be sure to put out some more college friendly recipes that require like 5 ingredients & two steps or something. 😀
I don’t like the idea of zoos myself, but a lot of them are sponsored or sponsor nature conservancy projects in which they’ll remove a nearly extinct or endangered animal from their habitat to repopulate them. Yes, there’s lots of controversy over it because…well, some people think nature should just take its course, but a lot of animals are endangered because of us, the jerk humans. So it is our responsibility to help them maintain their population. I mean, we all learn in school about the circle of life & the food chain, so when we throw off the balance by eliminating an animal, a lot of invasive species can sprout up, depending on how far up the food chain they are or even worse, if they’re really low on the food chain & that causes a die off of several species. The aquarium thankfully doesn’t have any whales or dolphins (unlike Seaworld…SMH) so it’s alright by me. It’s actually quite a nice learning experience because they do make sure these species are properly taken care of & they breed a lot of the dying species to repopulate the ocean. They try to create very similar oceanic environments too & there are writings all over the walls that talk about what you can do to help the oceans. It’s really quite an educational experience that many children should be exposed to so that they understand their actions have consequences. But again, I do very much understand the side of animals being captured to be shown off. There is a benefit behind it as they’re not being abused, so that is a really nice large positive thing that comes from these aquariums. Can’t say that about all aquariums though haha.
Snorkeling may actually be harmful to coral reefs if you touch it, bring it home, or use sunscreen that’s toxic to it! So there are pros & cons to a lot of things. A good chunk of our coral reefs are dying & marine biologists believe it has to do with a lot of environmental factors, but tourism is to blame too. It is also really nice to see the animals up close & personal though. 🙂
Octopi are pretty scary & some can grow incredibly large. In fact, the giant octopi species is really mysterious that we’ve put tracking devices on whales to study them (they eat them). The ocean is so vast that of course there’d be a huge version of this animal!!
Sea jellies are such majestic creatures haha. Thanks for the compliments. 🙂 I love penguins! I wish I could’ve gotten closer to them, but they had such a huge play area that it was kind of impossible.
You’re so funny! Tarzan Shenanigans…hahaha. I love nature too. It’s too bad you don’t have more friends that appreciate it. It’s really nice to see, you know, nature! How beautiful our Earth is beyond large buildings & what not. We should all take a moment to appreciate it & it’s really too bad people don’t care for it. :/ We get a lot of our medicine & food from nature & rain forests! It’s sad people don’t appreciate it enough to make a difference in trying to save them. 🙁 🙁
Congrats to Dr. Josh. What a milestone! I’m going to graduate soon myself and I look forward to wearing that beautiful gown 🙂 🙂 The aquarium is stunning, your pictures made it look even better.
Dr. Daniela very soon!! 🙂 I’ll be proud of you & your achievements on top of your wonderful blog. Thank you for the compliments. 🙂
That’s a lot of ingredients! It looks amazing though and like something I would really like 🙂 I wish I knew about the Oyster Bar the last time I was in Vegas. Oh well, next time then!
I also like your new watermark! The bee is cute, though the lines for the wings are a bit too thin? I didn’t really notice them at first.
Ooh, the aquarium photos are pretty. I still love going to aquariums. Congrats to Josh on his PhD as well! That’s awesome! My brother recently graduated with his too, so I know it’s a ton of work 🙂
YAAASS it’s insane, but they’re really all integral to making it all come together. I feel like a lot of cajun/creole food has a bunch of ingredients in it haha. But I prefer those simple recipes too, so I’ll be adding more simple recipes in the future, especially for them college kids.
Thank you for your feedback, Cat!! I’ll try to adjust that before I start using my watermark on everything. Don’t be shy about being constructive, girl. Lemme have it with what I should/shouldn’t fix!!!
Thanks! Josh reads the comments so I’m sure he appreciates the well wishes. Congratulations to your brother as well!! Getting a PhD ain’t no joke, but they’d probably make you….broke?
Thank you so very much for the button and for tagging me. I appreciate it. Congratulations goes to the others who had entered the giveaway, and to the one who had won the giveaway. I completely forgot all about it.
Another congratulations to your boyfriend, Dr. Josh. An awesome achievement on his part. Way to go!
Also, the pictures that you took look amazing, and they make me hungry! Haha!
No problem, Jamie. I hope you like it. I can always make you a new one if you don’t like the little flags & prefer something else.
I’m sure Josh would appreciate your well wishes very much. 🙂
& thank you for the compliments!
You are quite welcome! Any time. I really like the button that you made, and would like to keep that one :). So no worries.
That seafood pan roast is looking soo good!!
And congratulations on Josh and his Doctorate PhD! Wowie, he sure is a clever guy c: Love the tourist pictures as well ha Xx