Thai Crab Omelette Conquers Singapore and the World 🇹🇭 🌎

You know, when you go to a Thai eatery, sometimes they may not have pad Thai, some don't have tom yam, not all have som tam, but I don't remember a Thai restaurant that doesn't have Thai omelette. There will always be Thai omelette. Not one but often a few Thai omelette dishes 😄💪

Thai style omelette (khai jiao) on rice is an unheralded Thai comfort dish until recently. The fried egg dish is ubiquitous in Thailand from push carts to posh restaurants. When a Thai misses home and family anywhere in the world, a homely omelette over rice is often what calms the mind, comforts the soul.

In its most basic form, a Thai omelette is just eggs and fish sauce, some things always available in any Thai kitchen at home or in restaurants. A true life saver.

The Thai omelette is very versatile and appears in many forms. The slightly browned outside is soft with a delicate frizzly crisp fringe while the inside is moist, creamy. Inside there's the essential fish sauce, aromatics like scallion and chili pepper, and a range of possible fillings like shredded chicken, minced pork, prawn, oyster, crab, etc. Thai omelette can be one of many side dishes in an elaborate samrap (tray) feast, or a rice topper in a simple one dish meal.

Despite its special place in Thai cuisine, it was essentially a Thai thing among Thais, until recently.

Things quickly changed when a humble Bangkok stall known as Raan Jay Fai's crab omelette shot to international fame. I mean, many Thais have been fans of Jay Fai's style of crab omelette for decades (since the 1980s). Jay Fai caught the attention of people outside of Bangkok when the lady boss and her crab omelette were featured in the inaugural Bangkok Michelin guide in 2017 clinching a Michelin Star. Jay Fai was also featured in the Netflix documentary Street Food Asia in 2019. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Jay Fai's crab omelette is unique as it is not a flat disc but rolled into a cylinder shape like a burrito (as Mark Wiens said) or a French loaf, you get the idea.

Waiting time at Jay Fai with reservations is now 1.5 hours. Walk-ins have to wait at least three hours.

Golden Mile Complex : Thai Food Central of Singapore

And, here's the thing. In the past, food culture travel very slowly and took an even longer time for locals to assimilate. Food culture used to travel with people, either by migration or travelling for work or business. Thai cuisine's influence in Singapore first boomed in the 1980s when many Thai workers were engaged in our construction industry. The Thai population in Singapore declined since 2000, but Thai cuisine continues to thrive in Singapore.

Singaporeans love to travel to Thailand for shopping, eating and leisure. When they come home, they left part of their hearts and tastebuds in Thailand. Hence, Thai restaurants in Singapore enjoy a healthy Singaporean clientele who miss Thai food (even while the Thai population decrease). Singapore tourists returning from Thailand bring Thai cuisine back to Singapore. Some Singaporeans even open Thai style restaurants themselves.

Food culture now travels at the speed of the internet. So, when Jay Fai shot to social media fame, many Singaporeans were curious about crab omelette. Singapore is a nation of foodies and Singaporeans are ever ready to try the latest food trends.

The carb omelette craze just kept growing bigger and inevitably reached the shores of Singapore. Singaporeans start noticing Thai omelette and ordering the egg over rice dish.

Several Thai restaurants in Singapore jumped on the bandwagon. For example, Flying Pig at Golden Mile Complex and Warm Up Cafe at Mackenzie Road promoted their $10 crab omelette over rice deals. Not quite the crab and egg roll style of Jay Fai, but their more mundane renditions did enjoy long queues for a while.