Do you know anyone who is not encumbered by some handicap (an allergy to eggs, unthinking vegetarianism etc) who does not love an omelette?
I remember that Ajmer in the early 1970s was not exactly the gourmet capital of India. But when my friends and I would sneak out of boarding school and look for an escape from dire school food, we would end up at Ajmer Junction railway station. The station restaurant (run then by a very kind gentleman whom we called Mr Castelinon which, presumably, was his name) was not the sort of establishment that would win three stars from Culinary Culture, but its omelettes have lingered in my memory and made anything that has an omelette in it an instant favourite: Masala omelette sandwiches, Sri Lankan omelette curry and kathi rolls with extra anda. The French omelette. In almost every way, this is the exact opposite of the masala omelettes of my childhood. Our omelettes are idiot-proof when it comes to cooking them. A French omelette is one of the most difficult dishes for a chef to master. We rely on chilli, tomatoes etc. A French omelette can have only three ingredients: Eggs, butter and salt. The omelette must be soft inside and have a skin that is firm but evenly cooked. If there are brown bits where the skin stayed in contact with the bottom of the pan too long, the chef must throw it out and start again. Of particular contention is the Tornado omelette, which has acquired global fame thanks to Instagram videos of the process of making it. The Japanese say that this is a variation on omurice, a Japanese dish of omelette and rice. This is almost certainly unfair to the Koreans, who say they created the swirling technique that distinguishes a tornado omelette. The Thai omelette. We make Thai omelettes at our house all the time but we tweak the technique. The flavour comes from fish sauce, which may caramelise during cooking and change the colour of the omelette. At Thai restaurants, they like to stuff the omelettes with crab meat, though other flavourings are available (minced pork, for instance) and like nearly every other Thai dish, the omelettes are served with rice. We shallow-fry Thai omelettes at home and avoid the crab. They taste just as good and are ideally suited to jasmine rice and a chilli sauce like Sriracha. In Thailand, you can even buy packaged ‘omelette sauce.’
We would head for the station restaurant (on platform 1 if I recall correctly) and order the masala omelette. Because a basic omelette is one of those dishes that tastes good even if you screw up the cooking, it is often the safest dish to order at a restaurant, and. Because the chef must learn how to control temperature and must master the hand movements integral to its making, the making of the dish is extremely difficult. Because you need to keep using chopsticks to twist the egg mixture into a swirling vortex in the pan, the omelette requires skill to cook. The Thais deep fry their omelettes so that they are crisp at the edges.
