This was an awesome book! It combines compelling food related folktales with recipes. In this book the recipes are authentic and yummy sounding. I plan to hand it over to my Chef husband with a suggested menu using various recipes from the book. The folktales are interesting and were fun to read in conjunction with Laurence Yep's City of Fire. In both Gods and Goddesses appear to mortals to teach them a lesson now and then. Kindness, charity and generosity are themes in many of these folktales and it is fun to consider how these values that appear in religious and cultural traditions around the world and are pretty universal. ( )