IN honor of tomorrow

I'm going to go to the jail tomorrow for a story... so this food post is in honor of my visit.

The Texas Department of Corrections used to keep track of the last meal requested by inmates on death row. It became a morbid obsession for a lot of people, and the most popular state-run website. Part of that is activists used the site to humanize the inmates, another part is that is a question we've asked ourselves.

I feel like near death moments hit us in funny ways, like thinking about a plane crash and asking what meal would you want to be served on the plane, the last meal you would have before being stranded on a desert island and eating fish and sand for the rest of your short survivor-like life. But, there's something sad and something guilty about reading what inmates want. It's the meal of a stingy 10-year-old who's parents say get whatever you want, today is your day. At least in most cases. Then there are the orders that are one last middle finger, like the guy who wants a whole bag of Jolly Ranchers... do you know how long that last meal would take? And there are sad meals, like the guy that asked for a recreation of his daughter's seventh birthday cake, so he could take a picture with it for her, before he died. The prison said no to the last two requests, but they were written down. They recently took the site down.

I don't know. The first time I read it, I had to read them all. I couldn't read a few. And I imagined being at a restaurant with these men (cause most of them are)... I dunno. I just don't know. Here's a link that works... not all the ones I remembered are included in this list.

The Memory Hole delivers the list:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/deaths/texas-final-meals.htm

A chef who made the last meals does a morbid interview about his book I hope no one buys:
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1614126,00.html