A few months ago, I did a post about pruno,
a fermented drink often made by prison inmates. Well, here's something from the other end of the "cooking in
prison" spectrum: The Cellblock Cafe. John
"The Jailhouse Gourmet" Mandala, an inmate at Sing Sing Correctional Facilities medium security annex, hosts
this site of recipes and musings about his experiences learning to cook during more than a decade in prison. The
Cellblock Cafe is an offshoot of Friends Beyond The Wall, a
New-York-Based prison pen-pal program. Apparently Mandala and some of the other recipe contributors have limited access
to kitchen facilities, so some of the recipes aren't as dire as you might expect. While Mandala's introduction does
recount scenes of broiling hot dogs with radio antennae or heating a cup of coffee with burning toilet paper, the
recipes hosted here are a bit more refined. Things like fried rice and Jamaican stew reflect the diverse backgrounds of
the cooks, and pancake batter figures a little more heavily than I would've expected.Prison Cuisine
A few months ago, I did a post about pruno,
a fermented drink often made by prison inmates. Well, here's something from the other end of the "cooking in
prison" spectrum: The Cellblock Cafe. John
"The Jailhouse Gourmet" Mandala, an inmate at Sing Sing Correctional Facilities medium security annex, hosts
this site of recipes and musings about his experiences learning to cook during more than a decade in prison. The
Cellblock Cafe is an offshoot of Friends Beyond The Wall, a
New-York-Based prison pen-pal program. Apparently Mandala and some of the other recipe contributors have limited access
to kitchen facilities, so some of the recipes aren't as dire as you might expect. While Mandala's introduction does
recount scenes of broiling hot dogs with radio antennae or heating a cup of coffee with burning toilet paper, the
recipes hosted here are a bit more refined. Things like fried rice and Jamaican stew reflect the diverse backgrounds of
the cooks, and pancake batter figures a little more heavily than I would've expected.Comments [1]
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