This Bangkok Street Omelet is Michelin-Rated

[food sizzling]

[flames whooshing]

Welcome to a beautiful morning in Bangkok's Chinatown.

We are going to be getting an omelet.

[speaking foreign language]

Okay.

Welcome to one of my favorite things to eat

in all of Bangkok,

the oyster omelet at Nai Mong Hoi Thod.

This oyster omelet place has been in operation for decades,

and they're one of the most well-awarded oyster places

in all of the world.

For good reason because everything they make

is about textural and flavorful delight.

They do here a crispy and a soft.

Chef here currently is making one of the soft versions,

cooking oysters directly inside

of a very soft scramble of an egg.

Just a little bit of aromatics,

a little bit of oyster sauce to give it that oyster flavor,

but it's a very, very soft scramble.

That's all about emulsification and technique.

The starch that gets mixed into the egg

actually protects the texture of the egg a little bit.

So even if he's cooking it a little bit longer,

the final texture is still going to be soft.

As you-

[Chef] Plop.

[Lucas] Plop.

Between the two versions, this is most similar

to what we might call an omelet omelet

'cause it's eggs with filling cooked all together

into a stir fry.

It's so good. [laughing]

So excited.

He's gonna cook another one.

He's mixing starch with the egg,

a generous amount of oil.

Constantly moving it to get even heat distribution

and pushing it all around

so that the starch is emulsified into the egg.

Is he making a crispy one?

I think he's making a crispy one.

Okay, so the fun thing

and one of the most interesting things

about this Thai egg technique

is the full caramelization of the egg.

Normally, a lot of people like to get

their eggs nice and soft.

It's nice and tender when it's soft,

but you don't get all the umami flavors

that the egg has to offer.

So it's a generous amount of oil

that's gradually added to the pan.

You might think to yourself, that's a lot of oil in there.

If you cook that egg properly

and you cook it for long enough, you get two things.

Number one, you get beautiful caramelization.

You get that savoriness.

And second of all, that oil gets pushed out.

You end up with not a greasy, soggy product,

just something that's wonderfully and deeply flavorful.

If it's cooked to that brown caramelized color,

it's going to become light and crispy

instead of greasy and soggy.

See that brown crispy nugget?

It's so beautiful.

Once it comes off the heat,

as it begins to cool a little bit,

it's going to develop a crispy ulterior.

Some of these nuggets are bigger, some of them are smaller.

These are gonna be nice ooey-gooey in the middle,

a little bit chewy.

The smaller bits just going to be little bits of crispiness,

perfectly inconsistent.

What I'm expecting is nice plump fresh oysters

that gets cooked with a little bit

of oyster sauce and scallions,

as I believe he's doing right now.

[oysters sizzling]

Aromatics are activated.

A little bit of that oyster sauce,

just double down on that oyster flavor.

The starch goes over the top.

He's gonna mix everything together

with a little bit of water.

[food sizzling]

As that starch gelatinizes

and as those aromatics activate,

everything gets pushed around.

The oysters only have to be cooked ever so lightly

because they are so, so, so fresh,

and he's just pushing it all around

so that the sauce gets emulsified nice and thick.

Oh gosh, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

There you have it.

First, crispy egg layer on the bottom.

Then oyster sauce over the top.

That approach, not many other people do here in Bangkok.

All right, time to eat and we're gonna get

both the soft version and the crispy version

Nai Mong Hoi Thod has been open for at least 30 years.

They are one of the most well-awarded oyster omelets.

When I was a kid growing up in Hong Kong,

we'd come down to Bangkok for vacation

and we would eat here.

Chef here has been cooking oyster omelets

for longer than you or I ever will.

Sure, you can make a version of this dish at home,

but it's not gonna have the consistency

and it certainly is not going to have that skill

that he has.

The oyster omelet is not a complicated dish,

which means that every single component matters.

The main ingredients in the oyster omelet are the eggs,

just a little bit of scallion for aromatics and balance,

oyster itself.

Oyster sauce is the main seasoning component.

The soft origin is more traditionally

in Chaoshan back in China.

So, the idea here is they're cooking

a very soft scrambled egg that is mounted

with a little bit of starch.

That starch combined with the egg

mimics the slippery texture of the oyster.

And that dish is an expression

of the purest, freshest flavor of the oyster,

as well as that delicious, ooey-gooey texture.

If the soft oyster omelet is about textural compliments,

then the crispy version is about textural contrast.

You have oyster sauce mounted oysters over the top,

and on the bottom, nice crispy eggs

that are the purest expression of the savoriness

that the egg has to offer.

Outside of Thailand.

I've never seen chefs cook with two specialists,

two wok specialists at that.

The two specialists are sort of in a dance.

He's flipping with one and pushing against with the other,

pressing them into the oil

so that he gets maximum contact between oil and egg.

It's a lot of movement and it's a lot of paying attention.

He's not gonna step away.

He's not gonna think about anything else.

If you grew up eating soft tender European eggs,

I feel like we're really missing out

on what the egg is supposed to do.

It's a perfect compliment to the oyster

because it's different.

It's two types of savoriness, two types of texture.

Oh.

Okay.

[dramatic music]

These oysters are huge.

Like, look at them.

The only sauce in here is the liquid

that's coming off the oysters

plus a little bit of oyster sauce.

That shine means that that oil is emulsified into the sauce.

This delicious thick sauce is going to mimic

the texture of the oyster, of the inside and the outside.

[Lucas sighs]

There's no seasoning on this other than oyster sauce.

I know a lot of chefs will tell you that the raw oyster

is one of the perfect things out of the sea.

But a slightly cooked oyster is also just a perfect marriage

between what nature has to give us and what the chef can do.

Look at the size and the shape of those nuggets

and look at how it compares to the oyster.

It's a yin and yang, right?

It's complementary.

I'm gonna taste it alone first.

Crispy with a soft.

That's what I'm talking about.

Not only is it crispy on the outside,

because he's moving it around so much,

it's craggily in the inside, too,

to get so much surface area, right?

And then you'll find a piece that's just slightly bigger,

have a little bit more goo to them.

See how cool.

A little bit of that flour, that starch.

If you eat this alone and you really taste it,

then you'll find the egg.

The Cantonese word for this is cing taam.

Some people translate it as bland,

but really it's about cleanliness.

It's about clarity, and it's about subtlety.

If the ingredients you start off with are already

so beautiful and perfect,

why would you cover it up with all this other stuff?

In a sense, perhaps there's something to be said

about this type of Thai Chinese cooking

that is similar to what I look for as a Cantonese chef.

This is what the purists believe to be a proper omelet.

Even in Chiuchow now, back in China and in Taiwan,

there are people who argue that the crispy omelet,

it's a little bit sacrilege.

If you're a purist,

you're looking for the ingredients to support the beauty

of the oyster itself.

You see, that's clear starch.

It's clear because the starch has heated up and cooled down

so it's gelatinized.

What that means is the starch is holding onto the moisture

and it's swelling up.

Thai omelet.

[speaking foreign language]

Yum.

[Lucas chuckles]

I came into this thinking that the crispy one

was the only way to go.

But there is something very special about the soft omelet.

[chopsticks rapping]

Very, very special.

This is so perfect.

And the way you're supposed to eat it properly,

honestly, is with the sweet and sour sauce.

Every place that makes a oyster omelet,

whether it's Chaoshan or Taiwan or Thailand,

will serve it with some sort of red sauce like this.

Every recipe that I've been taught is totally different.

There's chili in there.

Sourness gives it a little bit of freshness

the way we might squeeze lemon onto seafood.

The chili in it gives you another hint

of tingling in your mouth.

Everything comes together.

And the way to eat this

with a little bit of white pepper

the way that my dad would like.

It's just a touch of this

to get rid of any hints of gaminess

and additional aromatic component.

Thai people do love white pepper as a primary seasoning,

very much like their Chaoshan ancestors.

I love following the regional differences

from southern China to Taiwan to Thailand.

What I've learned is that oyster omelets

are really about what the chef wants.

It's always an expression of their style.

This so happens to be maybe my favorite version in Bangkok.

The two versions that he offers

are so different from each other in philosophy.

It's a very, very special place.

I've been in business for a very long time.

If you go to Thailand,

everyone else is also going to tell you to come here.

But this is, [food sizzling]

I wouldn't miss this.

[food sizzling]

[wok scraping]