Edward Knowles, from the Auckland band Racing, reveals his favourite milkshake.
My relationship with creaming soda milkshakes is complicated. As a child I found its name and taste quite perplexing. I remember having a lot of questions for the various fish and chip shop workers around the Devonport/Takapuna area in regard to what creaming soda actually was.
Unsurprisingly, these inquires were met with blank stares so void of emotion that all that was left in their eyes was a peeling reflection of their faded vinyl counter tops. I understand now their almost offensive disinterest, but at the time it fascinated me that such a gap in the system could occur so openly.
These people were selling a product with almost zero knowledge of what it actually was, to people who understood it even less and yet no one seemed to bat an eyelid. Very troubling to my young mind. These mysterious milkshakes meant something more to me than just a flavour, they affirmed my growing suspicions that the real world was a far more haphazard and reckless place than I could ever have imagined. From that moment on I would order these milkshakes symbolically with a thinly veiled, wry, 9-year-old smile, safe in the knowledge that I was no longer under any false illusions. I had gleaned something about the world and was now one size six step ahead.