I remember those heady days in Melbourne, and especially I remember Dwaipayana’s famous apple crumble. I wrote about it in my book ‘The Great Transcendental Adventure’, as follows:
“Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir, 20 May, 1975: After the evening program, a feast was served in Parampara Hall. One of the items cooked, ‘apple crumble’, had become the centre of an ongoing controversy. Apple crumble consisted of a layer of thinly sliced apples sprinkled with cinnamon and raisins, topped with a mixture of half-and-half oats and brown sugar combined with melted butter.
The whole thing was baked until the apples were soft and the topping crisp and golden. It was the oats that were the object of critical scrutiny. Some devotees were of the opinion that oats were “meant for horses” and thus were a “low-class” grain, not fit to be offered to the Deity or Srila Prabhupada. Despite the divergent opinions, Dwaipayana continued to cook apple crumble regularly.
This night, Dwaipayana had set aside a portion of each preparation cooked to offer to Srila Prabhupada, who was often a little hungry after speaking his evening discourse. Srutakirti came down to the kitchen, collected the prasadam and brought it upstairs along with some hot milk.
Not long after Srila Prabhupada had started eating, Srutakirti came rushing back down to the kitchen. “Prabhupada really likes that apple stuff,” he said. “He just said to me, ‘Bring me more of that “crispy apples.” ‘ “Thus ended the rolled oats controversy; apple crumble was on it’s way to stardom.
(from The Great Transcendental Adventure, by Kurma Dasa, Chapter 11