Wasa Khuhaprema, 41, a stay-at-home mom, prepares rice with her 8-year-old son, Chisanu, called Thew, in Bangkok. Photo / Lauren DeCicca, The New York Times
The New York Times asked 18 families to show us what they have for dinner on a typical weeknight.
Bangkok, Thailand
Wasa Khuhaprema prepared dinner for her family, including her parents, with help from her two young sons; the boys cook at least one night a week. This night, they ate an omelette with carrots, stir-fried minced pork and eggplant, and southern Thai sour curry with cauliflower. Family members are expected to clean up after themselves.
Gurgaon, India
The Osans — Radha, Tara, Gurinder and Shikha — get dinner on the table at their home in Gurgaon, southwest of New Delhi, with help from a cook. The family eats around 9pm, and on this night, the meal consisted of palak paneer (spinach with cheese), raita, kadai aloo (potatoes with onions and spices), cucumber salad and roasted chapatis.
Rome, Italy
Claudia Bellucci does most of the cooking for her family in Rome, and this night she was assisted by her daughter, Fiamma. For this meal, she picked herbs from her terrace for saltimbocca alla Romana (veal rolled with ham and sage). She also served homemade pesto with trofie pasta, a salad and baked tomatoes au gratin.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Basmah, Mazin, Abdulmalik and Abdulrahman Khojandi eat their meals — a mix of prepared and homemade foods — at home most nights during the week. Dinner on this evening was smashed beans, shakshuka and masoob, a mixture of banana, bread, dates, cream and honey.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
While many Haitian families eat their main meal at midday, the Charles family takes theirs in the evening, usually around 7pm. Youvelyne Rosier Charles prepares the meal: On this night, she made lalo with sos pwa nwa, a black bean sauce served with rice. Oranges and limes from the yard were used to marinate the meat and crab for the lalo. Charles' 4-year-old daughter, Meghan, led the family in a short prayer.
Rehovot, Israel
Typically the Levy family eats at around 7pm, but on the Sabbath, the meal begins around 8. On this evening, they ate Yemeni soup, chicken schnitzel and chraime, a spicy Moroccan fish dish, with bread and rice. Tal Levy held the challah as he said a prayer.
Paris, France
Marina Pajovic Devouge prepared an early meal for her two children, Klara and Maxime, in the family's apartment in Paris before her husband got home. That night, the children ate some leftover roasted chicken from the butcher around the corner, paired with couscous from Picard Surgelés, a frozen-food store popular in France. They finished their meals with a Petit Suisse cheese and two slices of Comté for Maxime, and a slice each of Comté and Emmental for Klara.
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Siviwe Mbatha cooks dinner for her family — her husband, Sphiwe Mbatha, their three children, her mother, a friend and a cousin — at home in the town of Richards Bay, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. On this night they ate braised oxtail, with a steamed bread called ujeqe in Zulu (Sphiwe Mbatha's tribe) and umkhupha in Xhosa (Siviwe Mbatha's tribe). Chakalaka, a relish made with fried peppers, grated carrots and baked beans, is a South African favorite, she said.
Western Australia
Jarrod and Susie Opie and their three children live in Yallingup, on the Indian Ocean. On weeknights like this one, she cleans and he cooks: pan-fried nannygai, a local red snapper, with broccolini and sweet potato fries. The kids got extra fruits and vegetables.
Lima, Peru
On weeknights at their apartment, the Guevaras — Jesus and Margot, and their children, Eva and Dana — eat a dinner prepared by their housekeeper, who also does cleanup. Grilled steak was the centerpiece of this meal, paired with corn, potatoes and a salad.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Fleure Henket cooks for her family four nights a week, limiting meat consumption to two nights a week. This evening, she served salmon with basmati rice and broccoli; dessert was a homemade custard with fresh raspberries and berry jam.
Texas, United States
The Garzas get weeknight dinner on their table in Laredo with help from an Instant Pot. On this evening, they ate spaghetti with meat sauce, along with a green salad and garlic bread. They eat at home six nights a week; they'll sometimes order takeout if they have prayer group or baseball practice for Grayson, 4.
Lagos, Nigeria
Wednesday nights are for wraps at the Sokoh home in Lagos. Ozoz Sokoh, a food writer, with her daughter Riobo, flipped freshly made plantain flatbreads, which were served with chicken suya, lime-pickled onions and a tomato and eggplant salsa thawed from the freezer. Dinner included condiments galore, including peanut butter sauce, papaya chutney, hibiscus green chile sauce, mint and spring onion oil, tamarind ginger sauce, and beet and carrot sauerkraut.
Monterrey, Mexico
Luis Leduc and Katia Barragán take turns making dinner at their home in northeastern Mexico, but on this night it was Barragán's turn. She made huevos revueltos, a scrambled egg dish, with chorizo and onions, and served the eggs with flour tortillas. Their daughter, Emma, 4, insisted that the family eat strawberries, her favourite, while Polly the dog lingered nearby. "All the important things are discussed, celebrated and mourned around food," Barragán said.
Moscow, Russia
Liza Lunin makes dinner most nights at her family's apartment in the Russian capital. She and her husband, Viktor, have six children, who are in charge of setting the table. On this night, they ate kotleti — patties made with ground beef, bread, eggs and onions — alongside rice, green salad and a salad of roasted eggplant, red peppers and basil.
Tokyo, Japan
Yasuko Iguchi picked okra from her garden to cook for her son, Masahiro Iguchi, a divorced father of three who comes with his children to eat dinner five or six nights a week. On this evening they ate mebaru, a rockfish, with rice, miso soup and fresh fruit for dessert.
Istanbul, Turkey
Umut, Nevin, Deniz and Meral Terzi ate homemade kofte (meatballs), lentil soup and bulgur pilaf with grated tomatoes and bell peppers, along with dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) and red beans in olive oil. They ended the meal with a rice pudding called sutlac and pumpkin with tahini and walnuts.
São Paulo, Brazil
Carmem Massad Curi made picadinho, a traditional Brazilian stew made with beef, carrots and potatoes, which they ate with rice and a salad as they watched TV. Her husband, Luis Felippe, sets the table, and her children, Lucas and Giovanna, clear the plates.
Written by: Sara Bonisteel, Kim Gougenheim and Lisa Dalsimer
Photographs by: Lauren DeCicca, Saumya Khandelwal, Valeria Scrilatti, Tasneem Alsultan, Jessica Obert, Ilia Yefimovich, Dmitry Kostyukov, Rogan Ward, Guy Calaf, Angela Ponce, Herman Wouters, Dmitry Staszewski, Andrew Esiebo, Alejandro Cartagena, James Hill, Julie Glassberg, Nicole Tung and Gabriela Portilho
© 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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