Eating In
Good food for prisoners (and everybody else!)
W
hen I was a prisoner in mainstream, I was surviving mainly on fruit and toast. The reasons for that were complex, but the upshot was when I transferred to prerelease and allowed to cook for myself, I realised that I hadn’t actually cooked a meal in at least five years! The last time I had any relationship with food before that was when I worked as a short-order cook after (almost) completing a prevocational commercial cookery course at Adelaide TAFE. My lifestyle at the time ensured that I didn’t complete that certificate.
I couldn’t recall the last time I had cooked an actual meal for myself. My chaotic life had put food very low down on my list of priorities for many years. My food preparation experience acquired through various jobs was enough for me to cook the basics, but the limited ingredients, my restrictive budget and limited cooking utensils at the Adelaide Pre-release Centre (APC) back then meant that I continued to live mostly on fruit and toasties.
I looked for inspiration in recipe books and magazines available around the APC but most of them required at least one ingredient that was unavailable, and ingredient quantities were usually given in grams or ounces – there was no way of working out the correct conversion into cups or tablespoons which were the only measuring equipment that we had in our cottage. For about five years after my release, I worked really hard to make positive changes in my life. I kept to myself, ignored previous friendship groups, changed my phone number and slowly reduced off pharmacotherapy. Each
April 2021 • HEPATITIS SA COMMUNITY NEWS 89
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