Hellooooooooo! I’m back for a moment because … dun dun dun … I finished my last paper of my grad school career, ahhhhh!!!!

This is an enormous relief, as I have been in grad school for three endless years. Of course, I still have a month left of classes and my school duties do not officially end until my second and final graduation ceremony has taken place on June 3rd, but the constant stress of unfinished assignments hanging over my head has been banished!

So, I now have a moment to recap some food memories from the past few weeks, if anyone still cares! I remember a beautiful sunny morning in early April when my fruit bowl made me smile:



And there was a weekend when Erik and I made a visit to Istanbul Park, a newish Turkish restaurant here in the Slope. He ordered this gorgeous Turkish gnocci which I loved:



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I ordered the Sultan’s Delight with chicken (smoked eggplant puree with Kashar cheese and heavy cream. This is what arrived at my table:



We posed with our food and bottle of Turkish wine.



But wait! Go take another look at my food. Do you see cheese in there? No. Cream? No. Eggplant? No.

They had brought me sauteed chicken instead of the Sultan’s Delight!! I am so glad I alerted our waiter to the mix-up, however, because here’s the beauty that arrived to replace the saute:



Mmmm, that smoked eggplant puree was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. In fact, I ended up leaving behind most of the chicken and just concentrated on the scrumptious mush.

And the best part is yet to come! In apology for the dinner confusion, the waiter brought us complimentary baklava for dessert:



Mmmm, crispy layers of phyllo with pistachios and honey and walnuts. I almost cried!



The check came in this adorable box:



I was half hoping we would find candies inside, but no go. Just the bill!



In another memorable April weekend moment, I found myself inadvertently cocooned in purple during a homework session:



Purple shirt, purple blueberry crackers with cheese, and purple Bayley assessment!

In other random April Brooklyn news, Erik and I also tried Okeanos, another newish restaurant in the Slope. In all honesty, the food was lackluster, the decor was lackluster, the service was lackluster, but check out this presentation!!!

That’s the summary of my random April tidbits. I should be back shortly with a more in-depth examination of other important food experiences of this past month.

What are you examining lately?