Our best Asian omelette recipes for this week’s edition of Weekend Eggs will make you everything from the classic Chinese egg foo young recipe for a crispy Cantonese omelette that was traditionally filled with char siu pork, spring onions and bean sprouts, to Thailand’s kai yat say recipe for a popular Thai omelette stuffed with minced pork and vegetables.
Our Weekend Eggs recipe series for egg dishes from around the world is still on hiatus. We’ll be re-booting the 13 year-old series next week with new egg recipes to add to your repertoire for breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks and dinner.
We’re ending this holiday series of some of our favourite egg recipe collections with a round-up of our best Asian omelette recipes for your convenience. If you’re an omelette lover and are a fan of Asian food then look no further for your Sunday egg breakfast ideas.
Our best Asian omelette recipes include something for everyone, from recipes for kai jeow, a spectacular Thai omelette that puffs up and results in a crispy golden-brown omelette, and a soft, fluffy Japanese rolled omelette called tamagoyaki, which is fantastic on a tamago sando or Japanese egg sandwich.
If you like the look of these, also check out our round-up of best Asian egg recipes, which include Japanese egg donburi recipes, Indonesian egg curries, a half-boiled eggs recipe for classic Singaporean and Malaysian kopitiam eggs, a Chinese tea eggs recipe for marbled eggs, and Thai son-in-law eggs.
If you’re landing on Grantourismo for the first time, our Weekend Eggs recipe series began when we launched Grantourismo in January 2010 with a yearlong global grand tour aimed at promoting slow, local and experiential travel.
If you’re a lover of eggs dishes, do dig into our Weekend Eggs archive for inspiration and ideas. Or browse some of our egg recipe collections such as our 21 best breakfast recipes or 12 most popular Weekend Eggs recipes in 12 years of Grantourismo, which we compiled as part of Grantourismo’s 12th birthday celebrations.
Now before I tell you more about our best Asian omelette recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes or other content on the site, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could contribute to our epic original Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or shop our Grantourismo store on Society6 for gifts for foodies, including fun reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images.
Another option is to use our links to book accommodation, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, buy travel insurance, book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide, or purchase something on Amazon, such as these James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, cookbooks for culinary travellers, travel books to inspire wanderlust, or gifts for Asian food lovers, picnic lovers and travellers who love photography. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra.
Now let’s tell you all about our best Asian omelette recipes.
Best Asian Omelette Recipes from Egg Foo Young to Kai Yat Say for Weekend Eggs
Original Cantonese Egg Foo Young Recipe
Our egg foo young recipe will make you the wonderful Cantonese crispy filled omelette that originated in Southern China during the 18th century Ching Dynasty, and it’s another of our best Asian omelette recipes.
Called fu yong dan or fuyong dan in Cantonese, but in English is known as egg foo yung or egg fu yung, this Cantonese omelette was traditionally filled with char siu pork, spring onions and bean sprouts.
We mostly make the omelette with savoury pork mince instead of char siu pork and it’s absolutely delicious. But you can use char siu pork, small pork pieces, chicken pieces, prawns (shrimp), or even make a vegetarian egg foo young.
Tips: one factor that can affect the outcome is your heat source. We recommend a seasoned carbon steel wok. If you’re making this in the wok over gas, your burner’s size, and whether it has an inner and outer ring, can affect the amount of heat reaching different parts of the wok.
Egg Foo Young Recipe for the Original Cantonese Style Crispy Omelette Fu Yong Dan
Thai Kai Jeow Recipe for a Crispy Puffy Omelette
One of our best Asian omelette recipes, this Thai omelette recipe makes kai jeow, a crispy, puffy golden-brown Thai omelette cooked in plenty of oil in a very hot wok. The eggs are fortified by a good dash of fish sauce and the omelette is served on steamed jasmine rice with some Sriracha sauce to spice things up
This Thai omelette recipe makes a dish that’s spectacular to cook. When poured into the hot oil, the whisked eggs with fish sauce form bubbles that grow and the omelette puffs right up like a crazy magic trick, before settling down as it cooks into a thick, soft, fluffy golden-brown omelette.
Tips: It takes real confidence in your kitchen skills to stay calm while flipping this omelette over! To that point, please wear closed footwear and wear a kitchen apron. A round bottomed wok is best for making this dish as you need to get under the omelette with a wide mesh skimmer.
You want the fish sauce thoroughly combined with the eggs and we recommend the Thai fish sauce, Megachef for its reliability and availability as much as its quality. Also use an oil with a high smoke point, such as rice bran oil, as you’ll be deep frying at 190°C.
Classic Thai Omelette Recipe for Kai Jeow, a Crispy Puffy Golden-Brown Omelette
Chinese American Egg Foo Young with Gravy Recipe
Our egg foo young with gravy recipe will make you a Chinese American version of the original Cantonese omelette, which has evolved in Chinese diasporas right around the world, as the dish has been tweaked to suit local tastes and availability of ingredients.
The main differences between the original Cantonese egg foo young and the Chinese American egg foo yung is that the American dish consists of smaller omelettes rather than one large omelette that’s sliced or broken apart with chopsticks, and the original Cantonese omelette is eaten with soy sauce while the Chinese-American omelette is doused in a thick brown gravy.
Tips: you really need your wok hot for this dish to work. Use a decent thermometer because if the oil temperature is lower than 190°C (375°F), you’ll be making a soggy mess of an omelette, which you definitely do not want.You will need a good high smoke-point oil such as peanut oil.
Have a sheet pan with rack covered in kitchen towels (or kitchen wipes as they’re sometimes called) ready for the finished omelettes. I use a fish slice for this dish to shape and flip the egg because tongs can break up your omelette when you’re flipping it over.
Egg Foo Young with Gravy Recipe for the Chinese American Crispy Omelette That’s a Takeout Favourite
Southeast Asian Crab Omelette Recipe
This crab omelette recipe makes for a decadent weekend eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from an early morning shop at the fish markets, armed with luxurious fresh crab meat.
It was Terence’s inaugural recipe for Weekend Eggs, the Asian series some years ago and he adapted it from Charmaine Solomon’s The Complete Asian Cookbook which used to be on our bookshelves in Sydney for years and saw a lot of use. It’s a classic in the Australian-Asian kitchen.
Solomon calls it a Vietnamese crab omelette, however, in all our travels through Vietnam — we lived there for a short time and I’ve hosted culinary tours there — we’ve never seen an omelette like this, so we tend to call it Vietnamese inspired.
This crab omelette is a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish. Wherever it comes from, it’s absolutely heavenly, and is one of our best Asian omelette recipes.
Char Siu Pork Omelette Recipe
Terence’s char siu pork omelette recipe makes a delicious meal from char siu pork leftovers wrapped in a fluffy omelette and garnished with crunchy bean sprouts, Chinese celery leaf, finely sliced red chillies, and Sriracha sauce.
If you’ve made and enjoyed his sublime char siu pork recipe – or this soft scrambled eggs with Chinese barbecue pork and chives, one of our most popular Asian eggs recipes – then you’re going to love this char siu pork omelette, another of our best Asian omelette recipes.
Tips: This char siu pork omelette recipe was created to use up leftover char siu pork, so if you don’t happen to have some Chinese barbecued pork tucked away in the fridge as we did this, then we suggest make that first.
If you’re up for a second cooking project, make some homemade Sriracha sauce too. For a four egg omelette like the omelette you’ll be making for this recipe, Terence suggests a 20cm (8-inch) omelette pan. These pans have steeper and taller sides than many all-purpose fry pans.
Char Siu Pork Omelette Recipe with Crunchy Sprouts, Chinese Celery Leaf and Sriracha
Japanese Rolled Omelette Recipe for Tamagoyaki
This Japanese rolled omelette recipe for tamagoyaki makes a soft, fluffy, rolled omelette that we love to eat between thick slices of Japanese bread to make a tamago sando or Japanese egg sandwich.
Japanese rolled omelettes are eaten everywhere in Japan, from izakayas to high-end sushi restaurants, but home-cooked tamagoyaki has a special place in the hearts of Japanese.The first time we tried one, we could not believe how light, fluffy and flavourful it was.
Tips: buy a tamagoyaki pan. There are so many tamagoyaki pans out there Amazon even has a dedicated page explaining the types of Tamagoyaki pans. We’re old-school and like the cast iron tamagoyaki pans with wooden handles.
We found a small tamagoyaki pan in a Japanese recycle shop here in Siem Reap that’s perfect for a one-person omelette measuring 10 cm wide x 15 cm long. It’s still listed on the Amazon Japan shop. An entire tamagoyaki kit with a brush for the oil for the pan and a silicone spatula with which to roll the omelette is also a good idea.
This Japanese Rolled Omelette Recipe Makes Tamagoyaki for Your Tamago Sando
Kai Yat Say Thai Stuffed Eggs Recipe
This kai yat say Thai stuffed eggs recipe makes an omelette filled with minced pork and vegetables. It’s a popular Thai dish that Terence used to make regularly when we lived in Bangkok, inspired by the early morning breakfast street food dishes that are usually finished by mid-morning.
While this dish isn’t necessarily a breakfast dish in Thailand – nor one that we even saw made much on the streets, although we did see street food cooks serve it pre-made, kai yat say is a perfect weekend eggs breakfast dish.
Kai yat say is simply pork mince, diced vegetables and oyster sauce or fish sauce, stir fried and wrapped in a thin omelette cooked in a wok. As with many Thai dishes, there is no one canonical version of it, but most versions will include garlic, onion, carrots, peas, and tomatoes, along with the pork, or sometimes chicken.
While it’s a filling dish, many Thai people choose to have rice with it, along with some chilli sauce. We serve it on its own as it’s so satisfying as it is.
Kai Yat Say Thai Stuffed Eggs Recipe for Weekend Eggs Bangkok Edition
Cambodian Saom Omelette Recipe
My Cambodian saom omelette recipe is not traditional, but is inspired by a typical herb omelette that Cambodians love, which is also a favourite dish of mine.
The delicious herbaceous eggs dish is made with a beloved Cambodian green that is foraged and farmed. Stinky when raw, it’s sweet, garlicky and comforting when fried in butter.
Saom is the feathery shoots of senegalia pennata or acacia pennata or ‘acacia leaf’ here in Cambodia, more commonly known as climbing wattle.
Our Cambodian saom omelette is easy to make if you know how to make a French-style omelette. Of course if you want to make a more traditional saom omelette in the local style typical of this kind of Southeast Asian omelette, scroll down.
Cambodian Saom Omelette Recipe for an Herbaceous Weekend Eggs Dish with Foraged Greens
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our best Asian omelette recipes as we love to hear how our recipes turn out for you.
Leave a Reply