Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or unless you were smart enough not to get sucked into the lost netherworld, you know that Lost recently ended its six season run. Say what you will about the finale, it was still a good reason to get together and eat. I will miss these little island themed shindigs. Look at these adorable little mini tomato, basil, and mozzarella with balsamic stackers. So damn cute!

A fruit mix with the most incredible strawberries I’ve had in a long time. Wherever these strawberries came from, I want to go to there!

It wouldn’t be a Lost party without shrimp cocktail and chips and guac/salsa! The salsa was decidedly spicier than expected.

The entree of the evening was chicken fajitas. Here are their fixins.

And here are the chicken fajita innards… chicken, onions, and peppers in fajita seasoning. Also, here’s some spanish rice from a packet. And lastly, some fish, for those who felt inclined not to have chicken fajitas. Everything turned out great! Goodbye Lost!

In the wee hours of the morning, we headed over to Fort Wayne, IN, to visit a potential client. After the meeting, it was time to eat lunch. Breakfast was pretty much skipped since we left at 5AM and drove like fiends, so we had to eat. I ended up finding Don Hall’s Old Gas House using the yelp app. What an excellent find it turned out to be!

The place is sizeable and was pretty much packed when we got there. It was a nice mix of people – young, old, business, casual, just a nice random mix. Driving into Fort Wayne was kind of depressing, but once we got into the downtown area, where Don Hall’s is, it was much more pleasant. It’s actually a cute and cool downtown! And it turns out that old Don Hall has quite a little dynasty for himself in Fort Wayne.

We both started with a bowl of gumbo. This was super good and quite spicy! J said he knows gumbo, and this was good gumbo. He wanted more rice in his gumbo, so he asked, and they were nice enough to bring him out a little bowl of extra rice.

For my entree, I got the blackened shrimp with mango salsa and pickled okra, served on top of mixed greens. The shrimp were huge, grilled just right, and spiced well. The mango salsa was a nice sweet contrast to the savory shrimp. But my favorite thing about this dish? The pickled okra! I like okra, but I’ve only had fried okra before. But I totally fell in love with these pickled okras. They were split in half and just mildly pickled. They had a tiny little hint of spicy, but not that much. Yes, they’re still fuzzy on the outside, but they weren’t at all mushy on the inside like fried okra tends to be. They had just the right amount of crunch.

Also, my other truly favorite thing about this lunch was the garlic bread sticks. Oh. My. Word. I didn’t even take a picture of them because I was too busy shoving them in my mouth. First off, they were piping hot. Second off, they were drenched, literally drenched, but not soggy or anything, in garlic butter. It was a perfect and delicious bread stick dunked into perfect and delicious hot garlic butter. My goodness, I could have eaten 100 more and died happy. Service was nice and friendly. This was a random place where we pretty much just ended up, but I would definitely come back here if I’m ever back in Fort Wayne!

After my orlando stay, I had to head over to Chicago for a quick overnight trip. After checking into our hotel, we headed over to Catch 35, which is right on the river. We couldn’t get a regular table quickly, so we sat at the jazz bar instead. And lo and behold, jazz musicians started to play! Seafood is what we wanted, and seafood is what we got!

Here’s a crabcake appetizer. I liked this crabcake because it didn’t have all kinds of weird hunks or chunks of random stuff in it. It was pretty much just crab. And it was pretty  much delicious. The salsa that came along with it was also great. I also had a cup of the clam chowder which was very creamy but not very clammy. It was more like a potato chowder with a tiny bit of clams in it. I still liked it, but it needed more clam flavor! J got a cup of the gumbo which he quite liked.

The waiter said that the halibut and the bass were the dishes they were best known for, so J went with the halibut. The sauteed alaskan halibut was topped with maryland crabmeat, portabella mushrooms, and meuniere butter. J requested that they hold the mushrooms. This was an excellent fish dish.

Although I’m typically a scallop girl, I went with the chilean sea bass in hawaiian ginger-scallion sauce. Oh. My. Word. This was one of the best fish dishes I’ve ever had. The fish was incredibly flaky and practically melted in my mouth. The sauce was the perfect complement. I absolutely gobbled this up. The green beans were also great, as I love skinny green beans like this.

Although I was full, J wanted cheesecake. So I had to try it! It had an almond graham cracker crust, which was quite decadent! Overall, the entire Catch 35 meal was excellent. Service was good, but the food took a very long time to come out. I think this was extra noticeable because we were both extremely hungry. But yeah, the wait for the food was quite long! This place was recommended by one of the hotel employees, and we thank him for the excellent pick!