20 Nov, 2017
Gastronomy Tourism on a roll: Cooking class at Thailand’s first fine-dining insect restaurant
Bangkok – The Thai tourism industry’s latest gastronomy marketing campaign is set to gain new impetus with the launch of cooking classes by the country’s first edible insect fine dining restaurant. The “workshop for the adventurous” was first held by Insects in the Backyard on 18 November and joined by Travel Impact Newswire’s Chief Information Officer Mishari Muqbil.
According to the restaurant’s website, insects and bugs can not only make a beautiful, finger-licking delicious meal, but they are also nutritionally and environmentally far better to produce and consume than fish, beef or pork. Around 2 billion people are tucking into insects and bugs.
The restaurant reports that insects like crickets have double the amount of protein per kilo than beef and approximately 20 percent more calcium than milk. They’re low fat, high protein, and have 13 essential amino acids.
As population pressures reduce the land available for agriculture, “it takes a whole lot less land to raise crickets than it does beef or pork. Insects are just a much more efficient way to produce protein and they produce a fraction of the greenhouse gases that conventional livestock do. For example, pigs produce 10–100 times more greenhouse gases per kg of weight than mealworms.”
Passionate about leaving a clean, green planet for his children, Mishari Muqbil joined the cooking class and found the experience well worth sharing with readers of this website. His exclusive photographs are below. The cuisine was great, too.
Thai cuisine can now make a new claim to fame, with a difference!!
Insects in the Backyard is part of the Chang Chui creative space page: https://www.facebook.com/InsectsBkk/ Phone: 02 035 7000 Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/XKViXA2Yr7U2
The Facebook page advertising the cooking class.
Chef Mai our host and instructor. In 2012 he was the Thailand Chef Talent competition runner up. He has worked previously at Sirocco Le Bua, Michelin star restaurant chain D’Sens and celebrity chef, Todd English’s Mohgan Sun in the United States
All the insects used for the Nachos. This is considered a gimicky dish as it visibly features insects. Chef Mai says that usually when you eat animals, it looks nothing like the animal, so why should the expectation be any different for insects? Most of the insects used at the restaurant are generally available at Makro. The white one is bamboo caterpillar, retails for 1,200 baht per kilogram compared to chicken at 6B / kilogram These insects are mostly raised in a farm environment as natural insects can be contaminated with pesticides.
White cricket, chef’s favourite insect
Ants
Water Beetles
Water beetles are prepared by cutting the edges with scissors, peeling off the shell then removing the meat with your hands.
Dough being kneaded
To make ravioli, the stuffing is sandwiched between two pieces of pasta
Making sheets for the Ravioli
Ravioli sheet being made
Insects being fried for the tacos.
Crickets being blended with an egg.
Kneading the dough to make cricket pasta. The cricket is blended and mixed into the dough.
Travel Impact Newswire’s Chief Information Officer Mishari Muqbil at the cooking class.
Nachos
Presentation of the Nachos
Other than food, the restaurant features other delicacies such as this male water beetle infused olive oil.
Mishari Muqbil and Dwight Turner, founder of BkkFatty http://bkkfatty.com/about/
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