It’s a beautiful morning in Bangkok, Thailand and chef Lucas Sin is waiting for an omelet. But this isn’t your typical order of eggs—it’s the Michelin-rated oyster omelet at Nai Mong Hoi Thod, one of the most well-awarded oyster restaurants on the planet. Come into the kitchen and behind the scenes for an up close look at the experience of eating at Nai Mong Hoi Thod, where the philosophy is all about textural and flavorful delights.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (oil sizzling)
00:02 Welcome to a beautiful morning in Bangkok's Chinatown.
00:08 We are going to be getting an omelet.
00:10 (speaking in foreign language)
00:19 Okay, welcome to one of my favorite things to eat
00:21 in all of Bangkok, the oyster omelet at Nai Mong Hoi Tod.
00:25 This oyster omelet place has been in operation
00:27 for decades, and they're one of the most well-awarded
00:31 oyster places in all of the world, for good reason,
00:35 because everything they make is about textural
00:38 and flavorful delight.
00:39 They do here a crispy and a soft.
00:42 Jeff here currently is making one of the soft versions,
00:45 cooking oysters directly inside of a very soft scramble
00:48 of an egg, just a little bit of aromatics,
00:50 a little bit of oyster sauce to give it that oyster flavor,
00:52 but it's a very, very soft scramble
00:54 that's all about emulsification and technique.
00:58 The starch that gets mixed into the egg
01:00 actually protects the texture of the egg a little bit,
01:02 so even if he's cooking it a little bit longer,
01:05 the final texture is still going to be soft
01:07 as you plop, plop.
01:10 Between the two versions, this is most similar
01:12 to what we might call an omelet omelet,
01:15 'cause it's eggs with filling cooked all together
01:18 into a stir fry.
01:19 So good.
01:21 (laughing)
01:23 So excited.
01:25 He's gonna cook another one.
01:27 He's mixing starch with the egg,
01:28 a generous amount of oil,
01:30 constantly moving it to get even heat distribution
01:33 and pushing it all around so that the starch
01:36 is emulsified into the egg.
01:37 Is he making a crispy one?
01:40 I think he's making a crispy one.
01:42 Okay, so the fun thing,
01:44 and one of the most interesting things
01:45 about this Thai egg technique
01:47 is the full caramelization of that egg.
01:50 Normally, a lot of people like to get their eggs
01:52 nice and soft.
01:53 It's nice and tender when it's soft,
01:55 but you don't get all the umami flavors
01:56 that that egg has to offer.
01:58 So it's a generous amount of oil
01:59 that's gradually added to the pan.
02:01 You might think to yourself,
02:02 that's a lot of oil in there.
02:03 If you cook that egg properly
02:04 and you cook it for long enough,
02:06 you get two things.
02:07 Number one, you get beautiful caramelization,
02:08 you get that savoriness.
02:09 And second of all, that oil gets pushed out.
02:12 You end up with not a greasy, soggy product,
02:15 just something that's wonderfully and deeply flavorful.
02:17 If it's cooked to that brown caramelized color,
02:21 it's going to become light and crispy
02:23 instead of greasy and soggy.
02:25 See that brown, crispy nugget?
02:28 So beautiful.
02:29 Once it comes off the heat,
02:32 as it begins to cool a little bit,
02:33 it's going to develop a crispy ulterior.
02:36 Some of these nuggets are bigger,
02:37 some of them are smaller.
02:38 These are going to be nice,
02:39 ooey-gooey in the middle,
02:40 a little bit chewy.
02:41 The smaller bits,
02:42 just going to be little bits of crispiness.
02:44 Perfectly inconsistent.
02:45 What I'm expecting is nice, plump, fresh oysters
02:50 that gets cooked with a little bit of oyster sauce
02:53 and scallions, as I believe he's doing right now.
02:55 Aromatics are activated.
02:58 A little bit of that oyster sauce
02:59 just double down on that oyster flavor.
03:01 The starch goes over the top.
03:02 He's going to mix everything together
03:03 with a little bit of water.
03:05 As that starch gelatinizes
03:11 and as those aromatics activate,
03:13 everything gets pushed around.
03:14 The oysters only have to be cooked ever so lightly
03:17 because they are so, so, so fresh.
03:20 And he's just pushing it all around
03:21 so that the sauce gets emulsified nice and thick.
03:24 Oh gosh, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me.
03:29 There you have it.
03:31 First crispy egg layer on the bottom,
03:34 then oyster sauce over the top.
03:37 That approach, not many other people do here in Bangkok.
03:40 All right, time to eat.
03:46 And we're going to get both the soft version
03:48 and the crispy version.
03:49 Nai Mong Fai Tod has been open for at least 30 years.
03:53 They are one of the most well-awarded oyster omelets.
03:56 When I was a kid growing up in Hong Kong,
03:58 we'd come down to Bangkok for vacation
04:00 and we would eat here.
04:01 Chef here has been cooking oyster omelets
04:04 for longer than you or I ever will.
04:07 Sure, you can make a version of this dish at home,
04:09 but it's not going to have the consistency
04:11 and it certainly is not going to have that skill that he has.
04:13 The oyster omelet is not a complicated dish,
04:16 which means that every single component matters.
04:17 The main ingredients in the oyster omelet are the eggs,
04:20 a little bit of scallion for aromatics and balance.
04:23 The oyster itself, oyster sauce
04:26 is the main seasoning component.
04:27 The soft version is more traditionally
04:29 in Chaoshan back in China.
04:31 So the idea here is they're cooking
04:32 a very soft scrambled egg that is melted
04:35 with a little bit of starch.
04:36 That starch combined with the egg
04:38 mimics the slippery texture of the oyster.
04:41 And that dish is an expression of the purest,
04:44 freshest flavor of the oyster,
04:46 as well as that delicious, ooey-gooey texture.
04:48 If the soft oyster omelet is about textural complements,
04:52 then the crispy version is about textural contrast.
04:55 You have oyster sauce mounted oysters over the top
04:58 and on the bottom, nice, crispy eggs
05:00 that are the purest expression of the savoriness
05:03 that the egg has to offer.
05:05 Outside of Thailand, I've never seen chefs
05:07 cook with two spatulas, two wok spatulas at that.
05:11 The two spatulas are sort of in a dance.
05:13 He's flipping with one and pushing against with the other,
05:16 pressing them into the oil so that he gets maximum contact
05:21 between oil and egg.
05:23 It's a lot of movement, and it's a lot of paying attention.
05:26 He's not gonna step away.
05:27 He's not gonna think about anything else.
05:29 If you grew up eating soft, tender European eggs,
05:31 I feel like we're really missing out
05:34 on what the egg is supposed to do.
05:37 It's a perfect complement to the oyster
05:40 because it's different.
05:41 It's two types of savoriness, two types of texture.
05:44 Oh!
05:44 Okay.
05:47 These oysters are huge.
05:49 Like, look at them.
05:51 The only sauce in here is the liquid
05:52 that's coming off of the oysters
05:53 plus a little bit of oyster sauce.
05:55 That shine means that that oil is emulsified into the sauce.
05:58 This delicious, thick sauce is going to mimic
06:00 the texture of the oyster, of the inside and the outside.
06:03 There's no seasoning on this
06:10 other than oyster sauce.
06:12 I know a lot of chefs will tell you that the raw oyster
06:14 is one of the perfect things out of the sea,
06:15 but a slightly cooked oyster is also just
06:18 a perfect marriage between what nature has to give us
06:20 and what the chef can do.
06:21 Look at the size and the shape of those nuggets,
06:25 and look at how it compares to the oyster.
06:27 It's yin and yang, right?
06:29 It's complementary.
06:30 I'm gonna taste the loin first.
06:33 Crispy with the sauce.
06:34 That's what I'm talking about.
06:40 Not only is it crispy on the outside,
06:42 because he's moving it around too much,
06:43 it's craggly on the inside too.
06:45 So you get so much surface area, right?
06:47 And then you'll find a piece that's slightly bigger,
06:49 have a little bit more goo to them.
06:52 See that coal?
06:53 A little bit of that flour, that starch.
06:56 If you eat this alone and you really taste it,
06:58 then you'll find the egg.
07:00 Or Cantonese word for this is "ching dao."
07:02 Some people translate it as bland,
07:03 but really it's about cleanliness,
07:05 it's about clarity, and it's about subtlety.
07:09 If the ingredients you start off with
07:11 are already so beautiful and perfect,
07:14 why would you cover it up with all this other stuff?
07:17 In a sense, perhaps there's something to be said
07:19 about this type of Thai-Chinese cooking
07:21 that is similar to what I look for as a Cantonese chef.
07:25 This is what the purists believe to be a proper omelet.
07:29 Even in Chiu Chau now, back in China and in Taiwan,
07:31 there are people who argue that the crispy omelet
07:33 is a little bit sacrilege.
07:35 If you're a purist, you're looking for the ingredients
07:37 to support the beauty of the oyster itself.
07:41 You see that's clear starch?
07:43 It's clear because the starch has heated up and cooled down,
07:47 so it's gelatinized.
07:49 What that means is the starch is holding onto the moisture,
07:51 and it's swelling up.
07:53 Thai omelet at Lai Bong Hoi Tod.
07:56 Yum.
08:06 I came into this thinking that the crispy one
08:08 was the only way to go,
08:10 but there is something very special about the soft omelet.
08:14 Very, very special.
08:21 This is so perfect, and the way you're supposed to eat it
08:23 properly, honestly, is with the sweet and sour sauce.
08:27 Every place that makes an oyster omelet,
08:29 whether it's Chau Shan or Taiwan or Thailand,
08:32 will serve it with some sort of red sauce like this.
08:34 Every recipe that I've been taught is totally different.
08:37 There's chili in there.
08:41 Sourness gives it a little bit of freshness,
08:43 the way we might squeeze lemon onto a seafood.
08:45 The chili in it gives you another hint
08:48 of tingling in your mouth.
08:50 Everything comes together, and the way to eat this
08:56 with a little bit of white pepper,
08:57 the way that my dad would like.
08:58 It's just a touch of this to get rid of any hints
09:02 of gaminess and additional aromatic component.
09:05 Thai people do love white pepper as a primary seasoning.
09:09 Very much like their Chau Shan ancestors.
09:14 I love following the regional differences
09:16 from southern China to Taiwan to Thailand.
09:19 What I've learned is that oyster omelets
09:21 are really about what the chef wants.
09:24 It's always an expression of their style.
09:26 This so happens to be maybe my favorite version in Bangkok.
09:30 The two versions that he offers
09:32 are so different from each other in philosophy.
09:35 It's a very, very special place.
09:36 I've been in business for a very long time.
09:38 If you go to Thailand, everyone else
09:40 is also going to tell you to come here,
09:41 but this is, I wouldn't miss this.
09:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]