It may not be hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk — it would need to be “near 150 degrees Fahrenheit,” says Smithsonian magazine, adding that a 1933 L.A. Times article helped popularize the myth (see last item).
But the heat has me thinking of escaping to an alpine meadow in Italy where the temperatures this coming week will be in the 70s and 60s. Plus, hopeful signs that we are seeing the beginning of a turnaround for L.A.
restaurants, Hello Kitty’s L.A. cafe debut, Oki Dog’s West Hollywood farewell and more.
I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.
Destination restaurant When you come around one of the last hairpin curves on the road from the ancient Umbrian butcher city of Norcia — or from Visso in the Marche if arriving from the north — your first look at the Apennine plains that surround the tiny village of Castelluccio can take your breath away. Located more than 4,700 feet above sea level with mountains rising even higher in the near distance, Castelluccio, which dates at least to the 13th century and possibly to Roman times, sits on a hill in the midst of a wide expanse of grassland that each spring and summer explodes with wild flowers — crocuses and orchids early in the season, then red poppies, blue cornflowers, yellow rapeseed buds and, vital to the region, white lentil blossoms. A single image cannot capture the beauty of the plains that attract sheepherders and their flocks, trekkers off the t.