Cajun Oyster pie recipe

Does anybody from down south (Lousiana) have a good recipe for Cajun Oyster pie using ingredients found in Taiwan.
I was on a business trip to New Orleans several years ago and was taken to a place called Moya’s. My hosts had hyped it for 2 days but when we got there, it was a clapboard old shack with peeling white paint in the middle of nowhere. When we got inside, I found a small dining room about the size of an average living room with 2 tables that would each seat 8-10 people. Staff were dressed in starched white and the menu was family style. Just order what you want and they will keep bringing it until you can’t move. We were the only guests - 8 of us. The other table was empty. As I recall, we had 2 chef’s in the chef’s hats and at least 4 servers. we also had a premium selection of the finest drinks.
One of the dishes my host ordered was oyster pie. I can’t get it out of my mind. I have tried my own from on-line recipes but it’s not the same taste. When I look on-line, I find ingrdients such as Cajun Spice. It tasted warm but not super spicy. I know there was some cayenne pepper and parsley. It’s difficult to find fresh parsley here so I subbed with cilantro. Close but not the same. I know there was bacon in it but mostly oysters.
Can anybody provide some ideas of duplicating this great dish. I have tried online and get lots of hits but not for this recipe or this resteraunt. My guess is that the resteraunt is history after Katrina because it was near the river and the hurricane most likely took it out.
Please don’t give me the online recipes. I have seen them. I’m glad I didn’t have to pay the bill but I heard that it was about 500 U.S. per guest. Damn!
Thanks in advance.

You can find potted italian (broad-leaf) parsley at plant markets.

Thanks TG but I dont have a place to have a garden. I wish I did. If I can budge the SO from here, I will grow my own in many more ways than parsley.

hell, i got mine on the balcony. you could stick it out on the windowsill. but anyway, it’s cheap, like $100 or so for a good sized growth. even if you use it all in one go it’s cheaper than those little plastic boxes you might find at the supermarket.

Wow. Cilantro sure tastes differently for some people, doesn’t it? I barely notice parsley, but even a tiny bit of cilantro can put me off a dish. I’d never dream of using cilantro instead of parsley, although I know it’s a common substitution.

Although a common sub, not a reasonable one. Cilantro has a much more pronounced flavor. Grow some parsley! Or go to TienMu. You should be able to find it there. To be quite honest, you will probably not miss the subtleties of parsley anyway. Go buy dried.

It really depends on what KIND of parsley is called for. If the recipe is looking for the curly parsley that’s usually used as a garnish, you are right. However, if the recipe is looking for Italian or flat-leaf parsley, leaving it out or using dried will be a loss. Italian parsley has a distinctive sharp, clean flavor that goes away in the dried product and that never exists in the curly variety.

Cilantro is as much like flat-leaf parsley as iceberg lettuce is to cabbage. Look very similar, taste and behave quite differently when cooked.

OP, I agree with others; even if you’re only going to use it once, go buy a live plant of it for ~NT$100. It’s very hardy though, so if your place gets any sunshine and you’re willing to water it a bit, it will live pretty happily even in a pot.

By the way, I think the restaurant in NOLA that you refer to might still be in business. I think I read an article about it in the Thanksgiving issue of The New Yorker. I’ll try to remember to look at home tonight to see.

Everything goes away in the dried herb. If the guy does not have a green thumb and barely notices the subtleties of parsley anyway, then he must suffer (or not :-))

[quote=“lostinasia”]
Wow. Cilantro sure tastes differently for some people, doesn’t it? I barely notice parsley, but even a tiny bit of cilantro can put me off a dish. [/quote]

Me too, I’m always scraping it out of stuff here. interesting article in the times about it not long ago

nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html

I had an old collegue that hated cilantro because of its “soapy” qualities. Great article, and I feel bad for anyone in Taiwan who does not like cilantro because it is in everything.

I think this has gone off targot. I really don’t care about where I can find parsley but thanks. This recipe isn’t about parsley. It’s about the whole recipe. Anybody?