Got some sandcrab, shrimp and tuna from my fish monger for our weekend dining (although last night it was pizza in the park with friends).

In both cases, the Salmonella in raw egg mayonnaise entered the discussion, and what I found startling in this completely unscientific survey was that people believed it was not the fault of the caterer for using raw eggs but that somehow a bad batch of eggs caused at least 220 to get sick and one death.

I tried to explain that mere mortals do not have Salmonella goggles, and that Salmonella happens, and since it happens monthly in Australia, cooks that are preparing large batches of mayonnaise or aioli (and therefore using a large number of eggs, therefore increasing the probability of a Salmonella contamination) should use pasteurized eggs or commercial mayonnaise.

No self-respecting Aussie will apparently do that, to which I reply, is it really worth dying or going bankrupt over a dip?

Notice that no one says, use pasteurized eggs.

A table of raw egg outbreaks in Australia is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/raw-egg-related-outbreaks-australia.