17. Illness

Just when you feel family life is in a good rhythm, everything jerks to a halt. He seems a bit off, you notice what could be the start of a rash on a finger, then his cheek. You all have a terrible night’s sleep and in the morning you

16. The fun of feeding

Our kid is coming up on 13 months. One year was a big milestone for us as parents, a moment to look back and reflect. I find myself asking ‘what were we doing on this day last year?’ and marvel at how our world back then was so small and

15. When food became a measure of mental health

Food sustains this house. In a literal sense, of course, but it’s also the drumbeat of our life. The tasks of shopping, cooking and eating give the day structure, and anticipation of something great for dinner often lifts spirits throughout the day. Except, for a period of time, it

14. What time is dinner?

I’m really privileged that I get to spend so much time with my kid. And I love it. Almost all of it. Almost… The bit that I don’t enjoy: getting into the second hour of trying to convince an infant he really should be sleeping when he’s

13. The Countdown to 1...

The countdown is on. In a few days our baby will be one year old.  We’re fielding questions about what we’re doing for his birthday. Truth is that this – his very first – is the birthday that is most about us rather than him. A celebration of surviving our

12. The Soft Serve Incident

In the middle of the heatwave, something of a milestone. Sheltering in the air-conditioning of Malaysian restaurant Sudu, we actually ordered lunch for our 10-month old. Not from the children’s menu – but from the main menu’s sides he had a fried egg and a plain roti,

11. Heat

We’re deep into the heatwave. There were a few days of respite at one point, but the whole month has seen our daytime temperature around or above 30º and nights rarely dropping below 20º. Tropical nights, they call them. The days of greeting an impending heatwave with a ‘wahey’

10. The time efficient feeding system

This is a long post full of practical tips for feeding a weaning baby – if you're not currently doing that or about to do it, you may find the level of detail too much! The literal intersection of food and fatherhood is feeding our baby, fast coming up

9. Is parenting boring?

A question has been going around in my head for a few weeks: is parenting boring? We’re nine months in now and he’s very fun at the moment. The question got into my head from an article in The Atlantic entitled Boredom is the Price We Pay for

8. Preparation

Can you ever really be prepared for the arrival of your first child? I think back to those final days before he arrived, and what I wrote in my notebook at the time. The board’s column for kitchen tasks stands empty as granola and roast garlic are ticked. ‘Be

7. The beauty of a well-sauced dish

I had an idea – labelled in my head as The Sauce Project – where I would make one new sauce each week, with the best ones entering my regular repertoire. Sauce here would be quite a wide definition: salsas, moles, dressings, the chutneys of South Indian cooking, Thai nam priks would

6. How I got comfortable switching to formula feeding

Our feeding journey over the first six months of our son’s life was completely different to what we had expected and planned for. Each step felt like an escalating challenge, and how we navigated them really shaped us as parents. For all the intentions of co-parenting, there are

5. Feeding intentions and early reality

We have started weaning our boy. We initially tried just before he turned six months as he had the sitting up part nailed, was starting to show an interest in our food, and demonstrated an unerring ability to put anything in his mouth. Life in our house revolves around the

4. Flashback

We’ve been doing some good entertaining recently. We serve the handrolls featuring the fish I was buying in Tenterhooks. A winter lunch for a big group has a Mexican accent with a big mole thick with mulatto chiles, alongside chicken, arroz verde, black beans and cornbread, with smoked idiazabal

3. Aperitif Hour

I’ve always loved aperitif hour – as much for the snacks as for the drink. It marks a transition, when daytime tasks end and focus switches to the shared time of the evening. In our first few months of parenting we were in too much fluidity, and often chaos, to

2. Tenterhooks

I had a big win last week, but it took me a while before I could enjoy it. I’ve got a food shopping mission which involves heading across town. It’s ‘my’ day with the baby and it should be easy, but he’s been showing an aversion to

1. 14 Weeks In...

8.30am: I’m holding my 14 week-old son in one hand whilst blocking out a plan to cook dinner for friends coming round in the evening. My partner is not feeling well, so is in bed for a second sleep. It is – relatively, for me – a simple menu.