If You Cook It, They Will Come

We have no idea why a company with a Midwestern name like Buckeye Beans and Herbs, Inc., is located in Spokane, Wash., but it is, and among other quaint foods it sells Baseball Pasta (shaped like balls, bats and mitts), a pasta soup mix called Extra Innings and Home Run pasta salad seasoning mix. You can order by calling (800) 449-2121.

If You Include Recipes, They Will Line Up

Last week Mexican-produced “Like Water for Chocolate” became the biggest-grossing foreign language film in American history, beating the $20.1 million record set in 1969 by “I Am Curious Yellow.” The reason for its success is obvious to us--like Laura Esquivel’s best-selling novel of the same name (which actually contains a number of recipes), “Like Water for Chocolate” is saturated with food. If you’ve got another explanation, explain away the persistent rumors of a forthcoming “Like Water for Chocolate” cookbook.

The Soft Drink of Diminished Expectations?

This month Coca-Cola is introducing a new soft drink named OK, described as peppery but less carbonated than Coke. It hopes the gray and black package and flip slogans (such as, “What’s the point of OK? Well, what’s the point of anything?”) will hit the spot with MTV/Nickolodeon-watching teen-agers.

Une Biere, S’il Vous Plait , Mate

London-based Guinness PLC, brewers of Guinness stout and Harp lager, plans to lay off one sixth of its employees. One reason: Inexpensive beer imported from France (France? Yes, France) now represents 15% of all beer sales in the United Kingdom.

Burger Math

Counting recently added Oman, McDonald’s now sells burgers in 71 countries--about 28 million a day around the world, or more or less a billion burgers every five weeks. At that rate, in roughly . . . let’s see . . . 100 years, McD’s can put up the signs reading 1 TRILLION SOLD.

Big Beans

Among the obvious-sounding coffee bean designations (hard bean, peaberry, etc.) stands one quite bizarre word: maragogype. It’s a very rare, relatively high-caffeine variety with beans about twice the ordinary size, originally found growing near the city of Maragogipe in Brazil. City Bean Co. will have Guatemalan-grown “marigos” (as their friends call them) for the next couple of weeks. If you can’t visit City Bean’s Westwood location, you can mail-order: (310) 824-1340.

Lost Moon of Frisco

Oops. The address given some time back for the China Moon catalog (chile orange oil, duck tea-smoking mixture, etc.) should have been 639 (not 630) Post St., San Francisco, Calif. 94109.