Experience one foreign cuisine every month, with Koi’s DIY mealkit

When the pandemic forced Aaron Barboza and Arnav Sheth to stow away their passports, the travelbug-bitten friends brought the countries they missed to their homes in Mumbai — through food. A window into another city, another life. Once every month at their nascent Instagram business Koi (@cookwithkoi), the 22-year-olds curate DIY meal kits featuring traditional food from faraway lands. Founded in July last year, the Koi box has brought customers, in Mumbai and Bengaluru, three-course meals from Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Greece, and Spain. This month, Koi heads to Japan; the kit contains all ingredients needed to make Japan’s umeboshi onigiri — seasoned sticky rice parcels wrapped in seaweed and stuffed with salty sweet plums; miso nikomi udon — a bowl of umami flavoured chewy noodles; and fluffy souffle pancakes.