We were a restaurant family, four generations in a six-block radius. When you opened our fridge, food fell on your feet. In Stuffed, Patricia Volk marvellously evokes everyday life in a New York Jewish family and what it was like to grow up around an old-fashioned, family-run restaurant. As much about families as it is about food, here are stories of eccentric uncles, gorgeous aunts and millionaire grandfathers, all of whom lived a couple of blocks from each other. There are tales of ancestors who were the first to bring pastrami to the New World and stir scallions in cream cheese; of Uncle Al, who slept with Aunt Lil for eleven years and then didn't want to marry her because she wasn't a virgin; and Aunt Ruthie, who gave the burglar breaking into her apartment a meal and a lecture. Wildly entertaining, this is a wonderful portrait of a fabulous family and a charming recreation of a lost era.