Fiesta San Antonio: Oyster Bake

By rerockstar • April 20th, 2009

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Just how many oysters can one man eat?

This year, my wife and a group of our friends decided to hit up the Fiesta Oyster Bake at St. Mary’s University. I’ve been living here for a few years now, but as of yet hadn’t attended any Fiesta events (I always seemed to be out of town during Fiesta). This year, we made a decision to be a part of this city-wide festival and have some fun! Our first event of the year was the Oyster Bake and all I can say is if you like food, beer, music, and sunshine – this is a must attend event. I had a blast and will definitely attend next year.

The Food – What’s a festival without food? Sure, its overpriced and I wish all events across the world would stop bleeding the attendees dry, but its a fact of life and I’m stuck with it. I’m the kind of guy that will buy a hot dog from just about any vendor on earth, so these types of events always excite me when it comes to making choices with food. I had an egg roll to start the evening off, but that was kind of a let down to begin with. One egg roll for two dollars didn’t really make me smile, especially when what I received was a cheap frozen egg roll that I could have bought by the dozen for less money. Boo to the egg roll. But let’s forget that one slip up and move on. The rest of my evening’s food? Baked oysters, oyster shooters, a sausage on a stick, and a bite of a hamburger (my wife was craving one). The oysters (both baked and raw) were definitely my favorites. I am a huge oyster fan and miss living in Los Angeles if only for the trip to Redondo Beach to eat oysters on the sea side. San Antonio is also a great place for sausage, so that didn’t disappoint.

The Beer – I’m a big beer lover and in my opinion there wasn’t nearly enough choice in beers at the event. I went with the old stand by, Miller Lite, which I love as a quick and easy beer for summertime BBQs. They were served in plastic bottles (which I hate – they never taste right from those) when I would have preferred drafts in a plastic cup. I’m kind of picky about that though, so I went with it. It was never cold enough, despite the large tubs of ice at every stand, but when you have that many people drinking beer in one place, I guess its hard to keep up.

The Music – We attended the Oyster Bake on Saturday night, so that meant we got to see Lit, a band I’ve met a few times, and Chevelle, a band I’m actually a fan of. Having toured the world and played in a ton of these sorts of festivals, I felt a bit nostalgic for my musical heyday, but I did enjoy myself. I’ve always liked Chevelle and although it was hard to hear them from our location (we were pretty far back in the crowd and I assume there was a dB limit on the front of house board), I could still recognize the songs and rock out to the band. I’ve met Lit several times in my musical past, but was never a huge fan. They write great catchy tunes, but its just not my favorite. They sounded good onstage though, so I give them credit. While wandering about throughout the day, we heard all sorts of different music (there seemed to be a stage everywhere we went). A little bit of something for everyone.

The Sunshine – After calling for storms all week, I thought Saturday might be a bit of a washout, but it turned into a beautiful South Texas afternoon. Of course, we got there around 5 PM, so the sunshine wasn’t around forever, but even the night stayed at a comfortable temperature. This is why we live in San Antonio. The weather here is gorgeous and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Other events to attend.

Tonight, my wife will be attending the Texas Cavaliers’ River Parade (I won’t be able to get down there tonight), although she will be working the party for her office, Guido Brothers Construction Company, so I’m not sure how much of it she’ll get to enjoy. We also plan on attending NIOSA (A Night In Old San Antonio – pronounced locally as knee-oh-sa) – a four day celebration of the cultural diversity that makes San Antonio an interesting mix of flavors and culture. If you’ve never been to San Antonio during Fiesta, I highly recommend it – a ten day party with the whole city involved? Count me in.