When Matthew Amster-Burton, who writes about food for The Seattle Times, Seattle magazine, and Gourmet.com, segued from reviewing restaurants to rising his daughter full-time, he settled on two goals: Not only was he going to keep eating the spicy, pungent food he loved, but he was going to teach Iris to love it, too. Not surprisingly, Iris has had her own agenda. Amster-Burton started chronicling his conversations and meals with Iris on his blog Roots & Grubs—turns out Iris shares his gift for the one-liner—and the blog eventually turned into Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater. It’s a fast, funny memoir punctuated with sensible advice and recipes. In an age when children’s and adults’ diets are more and more segregated, and when parents have to navigate through daily scare stories and nutrition advisories, the book encourages adults to chill the heck out and have fun cooking with their kids. Hungry Monkey’s recipes are also notably designed for urban families, whose kids are growing up on sushi and pad thai, as well as hot dogs and pizza (though those are OK, too). Today, Amster-Burton appears to talk about the book, answer your most neurotic child-feeding questions, and cook a dish or two parents may not have realized their kids will love. JONATHAN KAUFFMAN

Tue., April 27, 7:30 p.m., 2010