Childish Palate

Shariff Burke
Paperback, 242 pages
9780473762490

“I’ve rarely encountered this in another book before — the particular achey feeling of having your heart split between Aotearoa and Southeast Asia. These stories explore the sticky language of food that binds us across time and space, the quiet rituals between friends, flatmates, lovers, siblings. Shariff Burke is attentive to the hunger and loneliness — and humour — of living in a city that might not love you back. Moments of intimacy are felt across this tender, damp, earthquake-prone city. A smear of Vegemite, a bowl of fluffy steamed rice, a meet-cute at Johnsonville McDonald’s. Childish Palate made me hungry and homesick, in the best way.” - Nina Mingya Powles

Childish Palate follows a cast of outsiders in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, searching for hope in a country caught in an identity crisis.

A philosophy student makes a striking proposal to the imam of the Kilbirnie mosque; flatmates ignite a flame over a bowl of chicken ginseng soup; an office worker finds a sense of purpose in the brightly lit aisles of Thorndon New World. 

Across eleven stories, Shariff Burke wrestles with possibility, ignorance and the ways we compromise in order to survive. Childish Palate savours the richness and warmth of community, rejecting easy answers about whose tastes should define our world.