COOKBOOK WATCH

There are numerous books on the world’s food festivals, but few capture their goofy spirit as well as “Take 5000 Eggs: Food From the Markets and Fairs of Southern France” (Kyle Cathie/Trafalgar Square Publishing, $35). Photographer Jason Shenai is drawn to the irreverent as well as the beautiful; Jeanne Strang, best known for “Goose Fat and Garlic: Country Recipes From South West France,” provides recipes from all of the locations visited by the team. And Paul Strang, author of “The Wines of Southwest France,” describes markets (in Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse), processions (of 2,000 merino ewes in the town of Die, of a Paul Bunyan-sized papier-ma^che wine bottle in Marcillac), contests (garlic sculpting in Lautrec, pig squealing in Trie-sur-Baise), and village cookouts and feeds (giant paella in La Camargue, a life raft-sized yellow cake in Najac and, yes, an Easter omelet that takes 5,000 eggs). One thing becomes clear in Strang and Shenai’s depictions of Southern French festivals: Size does matter.