Srila Prabhupada eats corn

Aravindaksi Dasi: I had the opportunity of being with Srila Prabhupada every many minutes from the morning walks that he had around the place that he stayed during the first day. We went around the Pasarbaro area. He had in fact stopped by at one shop that had words written like, ‘Toko India.’ He had stopped and said, “Does Toko means shop?” I said, "Yes," and he said, “That's an Indian person's shop over there?” I said, "Yes." Miraculously at that moment when we looked up at the gallery, there was an Indian lady folding her hands and paying her obeisances to Srila Prabhupada from the gallery. It was an odd time for Indians to get up at that time. I was like shocked to see that any Indian lady would get up at that moment to see Srila Prabhupada take his walk. That day he had seen also a vegetable vendor. When he had asked me, “What is he selling? Is he selling vegetables?” I said, "Yes." We could never pace up with Srila Prabhupada because his walks were very, very brisk and very fast despite his age. I was quite surprised, and we were always left behind. So only Amogha Dasa used to walk by his side. 

So, when he saw this vegetable vendor in fact he had to wait for me to catch up with him. Then he went ahead and asked, “Are those corns for sale?” and I said, "Yes Srila Prabhupada." He said, “Could you bargain with him and buy some for my breakfast today morning?” So, I said, "Yes Srila Prabhupada." He said, “Do you know how to put them on fire with tamarind, with salt, and with chilli powder and put them on fire until there is a sound that they are done. They should not be burned,” he said, I said, "Yes Srila Prabhupada." He said, “Can you prepare them for me today?” I said, "Yes," then he said, “Go ahead and buy some corn.” They were nicely wrapped up in the skin and he had liked them. So, I bought some and we took them back to the place where he was staying. There I had no coal fire, so all I could do was put some salt and chilli powder. I had no tamarind nothing else. I had put a little butter on it. I had to bake it on a gas stove. When I had prepared one he was already insisting, “Where is the corn?” So Amogha Dasa took it up to him. 

As soon he had finished one, he was shouting for another one and another. I was quite surprised because I had to rush and prepare those corns on the stove. So, I think he had about three or four corns in that morning. Amogha Dasa was quite surprised because it's very, very seldom that Srila Prabhupada eats corn. I was told later on that he said, “That's food for animals,” from some other devotees as well. They were quite surprised to know that Srila Prabhupada had liked corn in Indonesia. That was one incident that I could not forget.