FOOD NOTES
LEAD:  For Mom on Her Day Instead of sending last-minute flowers for Mother's Day, how about breakfast in bed?
For Mom on Her Day Instead of sending last-minute flowers for Mother's Day, how about breakfast in bed?
Orders received by the end of the day tomorrow at Ottomanelli's Bakery, 1523 York Avenue (80th Street), will be scheduled for delivery by 10:30 A.M. Sunday.
The gift, packed in a straw basket, will contain a pint of fresh orange juice, eight minature muffins, four miniature danish pastries, chocolate-dipped strawberries, fresh fruit and a lemon-blueberry tea loaf. The price is $30, including delivery in Manhattan. Telephone 212-517-4666.  The Breakfast in Bed assortment from the Ultimate Basket, 140 West 83d Street, includes Wolferman's blueberry muffins, Sarabeth's preserves, Dearborn apple-cinnamon wheat waffles and currant scones, all arranged on a wicker tray with a linen napkin for $60. Delivery or shipping is extra, and the tray can be sent anywhere in the United States.
Orders will be accepted through Friday, but if the gift has to be shipped overnight, charges can be as much as $40. Telephone 212-877-3291; American Express, Visa and Mastercard are accepted. Time for Lobster
Like apples, lobsters are sold all year, but they, too, have their season. Apples are best in the fall, and lobsters are at their peak now. As the weather warms, they are caught in local waters, and when they do not come from the holding pens used for the winter supply, the flesh is firmer.
The local catch of small lobsters, weighing about a pound, is now attractively priced. 'The small ones from the bays are the best buy,' said John Haessler, an owner of the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, L.I. 'We're selling them at five for $20.'
Perry Duryea 3d, the president of Perry B. Duryea & Son, a wholesaler in Montauk, L.I., said that his company is charging $3.75 to $4.50 a pound for small lobsters (the price depends on the size of the order).
Other prices for small lobsters: $5.99 a pound at Jordan's Lobster Dock, 3165 Harkness Avenue (Knapp Street) in Brooklyn; $4.50 a pound wholesale and $6.95 a pound retail at the Shell Lobster Company, 412 West 13th Street in Manhattan; $7.95 a pound at Citarella, 2135 Broadway (75th Street), and $5.95 a pound at the Lobster Place, 487 Amsterdam Avenue (83d Street). To Aid the Homeless
Taste of the Nation, a nationwide benefit to raise money to feed the hungry and homeless, will be held in 32 cities on May 17, when restaurants and wine distributors in each city will organize tasting parties.
The admission will vary from city to city. In Des Moines, for example, it's $10; in New York, it's $50, and in Dallas, it's $150 for a banquet.
The New York event will be at the Puck Building, 295 Lafayette Street (Houston Street), from 6:30 P.M. to 10 P.M., when chefs from over a dozen restaurants, including Melrose, Zarela's, Remi, China Grill, Tommy Tang's and Provence, will prepare their specialties. For reservations, telephone 212-614-0955.
Costs for organizing the event are being borne by Mastercard International, which means that the entire ticket price will go to food banks and shelters in this country and to international relief organizations like Oxfam. The national organizer, a group called Share Our Strength, hopes to raise raise $500,000. For nationwide information about the event, call 800-222-1767. A New Kind of A.&P.  The first A.&P. Food Bazaar is now open on 14th Street in the new Zeckendorf Towers office and apartment complex at Union Square. In layout, space, merchandise and graphics, the new store closely resembles the Food Emporium built last year at 68th Street and Broadway. That is by design, because the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, which owns both chains, had the same upper-income urban shopper in mind.
'Had there not been a Food Emporium nearby on Park Avenue South, we probably would have made this one a Food Emporium,' said Michael Rourke, A.&P.'s vice president of communications and corporate affairs.
In addition to the usual supermarket provisions, the new A.&P. store has a fresh fish department, a custom butcher counter and a bakery.
The store is unusually spacious for a city supermarket: 30,000 square feet, enough space for three typical Manhattan grocery stores.
'We're hoping this will be a prototype of our inner-city markets, just as the Futurestore has become our suburban model,' Mr. Rourke said. Futurestores, like the one in Allendale, N.J., have a minimum of 40,000 square feet and like the Food Bazaar, cater to an upper-income market.  BUY OF THE WEEK  BROCCOLI  Verdant bunches of broccoli with tight buds are in the markets for 79 to 89 cents each. If you use only the florets in a recipe, cook the stems until tender, then puree and freeze them to use in summer soups, hot or cold.  FOR A DERBY DAY BRUNCH  SATURDAY is Derby Day, the time to serve mint juleps, country ham and the traditional meat, poultry and game stew called burgoo. A splendid resource for people who want to prepare a classic Kentucky brunch is 'Kentucky Cooking' by Charles Patteson with Craig Emerson (Harper & Row, $19.95).
The book starts with a recipe for the juleps and goes on to explain country hams and burgoo. A number of desserts made with bourbon are included. The history and lore that surround many of the recipes add to the book's charm.
With the interest in regional American cooking continuing to grow, this volume, with such dishes as Gleating's potatoes, Huguenot torte and Kentucky funeral cake, is a worthwhile addition to the cookbook shelf. There is even a chapter of recipes from Kentucky's country inns.