Sweet solution: Greasy won’t cut it in this heat

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On a day when the heat’s pushing into the 90s, nothing sounds less appealing than a hot bowl of greasy, breaded Chinese food. Or how about a big, greasy hamburger? The food court here at the LAT Festival of Books offers a fairly typical (and fairly unappealing) array of street fair food, but if you’re willing to take a short walk, you’ll find the best and probably the healthiest deal on campus.

Head northeast past the FOB tents to LuValle Commons. Skip the salads, sandwiches, pastries and thick-crusted pizzas (or don’t), and buy a tall (maybe 16-ounce?) cup of cold, fresh-sliced watermelon and pineapple for $3.49. Sure, that’s a bit spendy for what you get, but unlike almost everything else for sale, it won’t make you feel logy and bloated while waiting in line for book signers.

Head north from LuValle to the sculpture garden, where students love to take lazy afternoon naps, and relax away from the crowds. The only problem is that once you’re resting on the grass, the scientific axiom about a body at rest tending to stay at rest kicks in. But it does get you that much farther away from the Not Ready for Naptime Players. (No offense, but if you don’t have kids, there are few sounds more ear-curdling than ‘children’s music.’)

If you don’t feel like hiking away from the FOB, recommended edibles include: the $5 cups of fresh-squeezed lemonade (very sweet but still quite tasty), the slow-roasted nuts and, of course, the churros. It’s hard to go wrong with fried dough sticks coated in cinnamon and sugar.

-- Elina Shatkin