How to ruin your day for a world famous crab omelette
Falling victim to the cult of Jay Fai
It’s safe to say that streaming television has changed our relationship with food. When I saw the Chef’s Table episode with Gaggan, I felt a deeper connection to his story and had to dine at his restaurant. In 2018, I was lucky enough to have lunch at Gaggan and it didn’t disappoint. At the time, the 2-Michelin starred Gaggan was ranked the 7th best restaurant in the world and the number 1 best restaurant in Asia by “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.” It was a dining experience unlike any other I’d had before. The menu was only in emojis. The brash Eastern European sommelier told me that it was environmentally irresponsible to still even be producing wine in California (while serving us scallops flown in from Hokkaido).
While serving a course that had to be licked off the place from bottom to top while they blasted Van Halen’s “Lick it Up,” breaking up the traditionally serene tasting menu experience with this multi-sensory cacophony, they had me. Netflix shows create a relationship with chefs in 4K. You feel like you know the chef.
When I saw Jay Fai on Netflix’s “Street Food Asia” (from the Chef’s Table folks), I took notice. She was amazing! Each succulent perfectly fried crab omelette was made to order by the indomitable Jay Fai in her dirt bike goggles and unlike anything I’d seen before. When I saw Phil Rosenthal making his tweaky gremlin face and remarking on the abundant juicy pieces of crab filling out the omelette, I thought, hmm…I’d really like to try this thing!
I diligently checked the reviews the night before and read that if you want to eat Jay Fai for lunch, it’s best to arrive before 9am to put your name down. Okay, let’s do it.
These are the events that followed:
7:50am alarm rings
8:25am order Grab (the Uber of Southeast Asia)
8:34am Grab arrives but suddenly cancels
8:35am Second grab cancels
8:49am 3rd grab arrives
9:07am Arrive at Jay Fai. You are #49. The second to last name before they close the list for multiple hours. Gulp.
9:30am Stand around watching Jay Fai. Creepy man pretends he is waiting for Jay Fai and attempts to scam us into some sort of temple tour. He tells us we won’t eat before 4pm.
9:45am They are on name #10. We ask someone else and they say it will only be about an hour. Okay! Not so bad!
9: 50am We go get a coffee to regroup.
10:23am Head back to scout it out and find that they have just called #13. Keep in mind that we read that after they call your name, it is said it takes roughly 1 hour to get your food.
10:45am Your fiancé peaces out because this is actually insane and you are now riding solo.
10:50am Go to Thipsamai for their famous Pad Thai (pretty good!) to go and eat it in a park by yourself wondering how you ended up here.
11:07am Go to the National Museum and walk around for two hours while listening to Brain Eno’s ‘Music for Installations.” Really nice chariots!
1:24pm Walk out of the museum and notice the scammy guy from earlier is now scamming some random Brits. Decide to let him have this one and take a Grab scooter (It’s like an Uber, but you ride on the back of a scooter!) back to Jay Fai. They are at #47! Two spots left! Grab a beer from the 7-11 while you wait. Did you know there are over 13,000 7-11s in Thailand?
1:50pm They call your name! THIS IS HAPPENING. You order the crab omelette (duh), drunken noodles, and a Singha soda water (2nd favorite soda water ever after Topo Chico).
2:11pm You are sitting at your table waiting for food. You realize a major kink in the system. They only seat one party per table. So even if you are only 1 person, they burn a whole table just for you. The sweat is pouring out of you. You are punch drunk, confused, adrift at sea on the SS Jay Fai.
2:46 The food arrives 🫠🫠🫠🫠
The omelette. Think of the fluffiest scrambled eggs you’ve ever had, but then folded into a perfect cylinder that is then fried Baja crispy without compromising any of the eggs or juicy crab inside. There is arguably a 1/2 pound of decadent crab meet in a single order. It was truly delicious.
Was it worth it? Absolutely not! This is an insane thing to do. Unless you are Phil, Russell Crowe, Jason Biggs, or any of the other perfectly logical order of celebs who have graced Jay Fai’s instagram page, and can skip the line, I would NEVER give your day over to this omelette.
Think of the cronut in its prime, but it’s 98 degrees out and 90% humidity. I fell for the cult of Jay Fai. I hope that I have saved you from doing the same thing. It’s too late for me.
🦀🦀🦀