Cheese is the star at one of the world’s most enchanting restaurants in a Puglia forest. Plus, cold noodles to obsess over ... how fish sauce caramel transforms instant noodles ... the sexy steak videos transforming an Armenian meat shop ... losing Birdie G’s pickle chicken ... 6-to-1 grocery shopping ... and an Angeleno’s connection to Mexican Chicago. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.

Slinging the blues

It’s been more than 15 years since I stumbled into Caseificio Dicecca , the shop of the famed cheesemaking Dicecca family in the Puglia city of Altamura, and bit into a round of freshly made burrata, the rich, oozing cream still warm. No burrata I’ve had since has equaled that first bite.

I had come to the region with chef Nancy

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