Our Story
Once upon a time, not so long ago, lived a young monk in Dharamshala, named Koii. From the very beginning, Koii was allergic to hard work and sought after every opportunity to laze around.
One day, the Lama at the monastery found Koii sleeping in broad daylight and punished him with the most dreaded chore - Koii had to feed the chickens all week! When the Lama was around, Koii appeared to be hard at work with feeding chickens, but as soon the Lama was out of sight, Koii went right back to sleeping.
That evening, when the Lama saw all the hungry chickens he summoned Koii . “If I find even ONE chicken without food, I’ll make YOU eat the feed!” thundered the Lama.
The next day, Master Koii cooked palm sugar over a fire and kept cooking it until it resembled chicken feed. Afterwards, he scattered the sugar pieces everywhere the Lama could find them and went back to sleep again. When the Lama found him sleeping, he kept his word and decided to punish Koii! Our young monk, unscathed, ate a piece of sugar, told the Lama how delicious it was, and kept eating more and more.
The Lama was dumbfounded and had to try some for himself! The ever-mischievous monk swept the whole yard and served the Lama as instructed. To his delight the Lama spit out the first bite in disgust. “What did you expect?” asked Koii. “You are eating chicken feed.”
To everyone’s surprise the Lama didn’t get angry. Instead, he laughed, patted Koii on his back, and complimented him for his ingenuity. He then rewarded Koii with a purse full of money and asked him to travel across Asia to learn the most coveted and secret recipes of the region.
And so began the culinary journey of Master Koii!!