A Jar of Eggs, Please

An Elizabeth, N.J., company named Papetti’s has introduced a supermarket brand of pasteurized raw eggs. They’re not cheap--about 89 cents for eight ounces, the equivalent of four eggs--but in the East, where salmonella infection of eggs is a serious health problem, that might be a bargain.

California Cuisine Conquers the World

Food Arts magazine reports the following local specialties of the house: lamb rib-eye with currant/rosemary glaze and lavender-roasted tomato couscous timbale (The Coach House, Oklahoma City); choice of crisped salmon on young leek confit with clam peppercorn sauce or char-grilled squid and mango on spicy greens (Sanford Restaurant, Milwaukee); puffer fish (“sugar toads”) stuffed with crab meat and baked in pork caul fat, served with corn sauce (Windows on Urbanna Creek, Urbanna, Va.).

Rose Bowl Jerky Takes Wing

Top of the Flock Turkey Jerky, invented by a fellow who is allergic to beef, has been available once a month at the Rose Bowl Swap Meet. Now the low-fat, no-preservative jerky is in some health health food stores ($2.59 an ounce).

Menacing Venison

Venison, which is lower in fat than chicken breast, turkey meat or baked salmon, shows up on diet menus as well as gourmet menus these days. This may be why New Zealand, which produces 85% of the venison eaten in this country, is now farming deer. It’s a big turnabout in Kiwi Land--for much of this century deer were a pest in New Zealand, like the rabbit in Australia, and at one time there was actually a bounty on them.

And Give Tchaikovsky the Newsbite

Jack in the Box now sells toasted ravioli, possibly the only breaded ravioli you’ve ever had. They’re a pleasant, chewy snack with plastic-pack marinara sauce. Says Jack in the Box VP Mo Iqbal, “It’s ‘Look out, linguine, and move over, fettuccine.’ ”

Beard Cloth

If you’re really, really into the late James Beard, there’s a limited-edition fabric for you, featuring Beard’s dog, his Greenwich Village townhouse and many of his favorite foods. In April, the Williams-Sonoma mail-order catalogue will offer it as a silk bow tie (Beard was a bow-tie guy) for $35, a necktie at $60, a $75 cummerbund and an $85 silk scarf. Williams-Sonoma donates $5 from the sale of each item to the James Beard Foundation.

Just Don’t Go Into the Water Right After Eating

A Maine company, not content with merely delivering lobsters overnight, offers “the perfect business gift”: two live lobsters plus bibs, place mats, picks, metal claw crackers, cooking instructions and a cassette recording of the book “Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive” by Harvey MacKay. It’s $59.95 from the Lobster Connection, P.O. Box 508, Kittery, Me. 03904; (800) 343-8788.