The Backstreet Academy - cooking tarantulas and more!

The Backstreet Academy is a social enterprise that exists throughout Asia to connect tourists with a local person skilled in cooking, dancing, music, art, fishing etc. We have taken part in 3 of these courses so far and found them a great way to not only get exposed to a new skill but also to meet local people and learn more about their culture. In exchange, we paid a fee with most of the fee (about 70%) going directly to the teacher and translator. 

The first course we did was aptly named "Fear Factor". Danny and I have watched a show before about the future of eating bugs - so we thought it was time to try it out. We cooked (and ate) crickets, silk worms and ... Tarantulas!  

Beyond overcoming our fears and learning that crickets are delicious, one of the things that we liked the best was that the course took place in a local Cambodian's home. His 4-year old son was there too and Zac and him had fun picking flowers and playing with balloons. In fact, I think the reason why Zac was willing to try so many of the insects was because this little boy obviously obtained so much pleasure from eating them. 

Our second course was "Coconut carving". Zac and I spent 2 hours learning how to carve coconuts - and it is difficult!  Zac seemed to excel at this more so than I as two of my carvings broke so I was relegated to simple designs where he was quite successful at designing and cutting his own unique shapes. 

I needed a lot of help:

Our third course was "Dessert Making". Zac and I both having sweet tooths, we jumped at this opportunity, and Danny came along to take photos and chat. Again, one of the best parts was that this course took place in our teacher's house so we talked, cooked, and ate while surrounded by multiple generations of Cambodians. Our translator was a university student who was also very interesting and provided insight into what Cambodia needs to move forward as a country. If this young man is an indicator of the country's youth then Cambodia has a much improved future ahead. 

We made four different desserts and they were delicious - all based on varying forms and combinations of rice, coconut, green bean, tapioca, and sugar.  I took detailed notes so hopefully can replicate them when we are back in Canada, or maybe even here in our AirBNB house. 

Sticky rice with coconut custard: (Mmmmmm - much better than tarantulas!)

Backstreet Academy courses are also offered in Laos and Vietnam so I just might have to compare dessert making in all three countries, and learn some other new skills too. You can find out more about the Backstreet Academy by visiting backstreetacademy.com.