The first in a series of reactions and reflections to Istanbul cuisine collected over spring break on tour with the Yale a cappella group The New Blue.

When I departed for JFK at the start of break, I left behind the remnants of many a late-night take-out order. I had pretty much sampled the full variety of New Haven delivery options in that last week before break — pizza for the history midterm, Indian for the fellowship application, Chinese for the English paper, etc. The diversity in my trash bag (and on my coffee table, I’ll admit it) was a testament to my addiction to campusfoods.com. I thought I had consumed it all. But delivery hummus? After buying several humongous loaves of bread for about a dollar a pop, New Blue returned to the hostile with a hankering for the local condiment. We asked the guy at the desk where the closest market was, but he only hit his cell phone speed dial and told us he would take care of it. Ten minutes later we had four tins of stuff that makes the sandwich bar specialty look like puréed cardboard. Beat that, Dominos.

—Hilary Faxon