Amazon.com Review
The Festive Table will likely appeal to the traditional and non-traditional alike. Sure, there are recipes in here for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Hannukah, and Rosh Hashanah, but there are also menus for less well-known celebrations such as Persian New Year, Juneteenth, and Kwanzaa. Lundy divides her interest almost equally between the foods we prepare for special celebrations and the holidays themselves; the book is organized into chapters named for a holiday or celebration, and within each chapter are numerous personal accounts from Lundy's many friends and acquaintances about their own family traditions. There are tamale parties on New Year's Eve, a Hotdish Doldrums Dance to hold the winter blues at bay, and new clothes in which to great the new year in Persian households.
These wonderful snippets of story and tradition weave in and around the delectable recipes that help make the holidays special. There's Hoppin' John for Juneteenth, the African American celebration of emancipation, and tasty salads to help welcome the Summer Solstice. Even such traditional holidays as Thanksgiving and Christmas receive a twist--Cajun Thanksgiving, for example, features roast pork instead of turkey with a highly seasoned rice dressing on the side. Reading The Festive Table is a little like swapping stories around the table with good friends--you learn a little, laugh a little, and maybe come away with some new ideas about old holiday traditions.
