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Childish Palate - Shariff Burke PREORDER

$32.00

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.

Paperback, 135 × 210 mm

DUE FOR RELEASE 26 MARCH 2026

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.

Paperback, 135 × 210 mm

DUE FOR RELEASE 26 MARCH 2026

“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

“Shariff Burke's voice is unlike anyone else; he somehow manages to be irreverent and full of wonder at the same time, taking us inside the lives of people, homes and workplaces we rarely see in Aotearoa fiction. Funny, odd and replete with mouthwatering kai, Childish Palate is a very good time.” - Tina Makereti

“Childish Palate is a luminous exploration of how food binds us to memory, belonging, and each other. Through intimate, interwoven stories, it traces journeys shaped by migration, love, loss, and transformation. The food throughout this collection carries history and asks who we are becoming, revealing the quiet revolutions in how we learn to nourish ourselves beyond survival.” - Sam Low