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Personality aspects of entrepreneurship: A look at five meta-analyses

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Personality aspects of entrepreneurship: A look at five meta-analyses

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The entrepreneurs' characteristics.

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The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and growth: The moderating role of family involvement

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The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and growth: The moderating role of family involvement

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Relationship between Entrepreneurial Direction and company performance when family is involved

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The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and growth- The moderating role of family involvement

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Family Involvement, Family Influence, and Family–Centered Non–Economic Goals in Small Firms

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Family Involvement, Family Influence, and Family–Centered Non–Economic Goals in Small Firms

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Family Involvement, Family Influence, and Family–Centered Non–Economic Goals in Small Firms

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Value creation in family firms: A model of fit

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Value creation in family firms: A model of fit

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How does family ownership either create or destroy value?

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Entrepreneurial opportunities for all?Entrepreneurial capability and the Capabilities Approach

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Entrepreneurial opportunities for all?Entrepreneurial capability and the Capabilities Approach

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More information about Trait and
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Entrepreneurial opportunities for all? Entrepreneurial capability and the Capabilities Approach

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Socioemotional Wealth in Family Firms: Theoretical Dimensions, Assessment Approaches, and Agenda for Future Research

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Socioemotional Wealth in Family Firms: Theoretical Dimensions, Assessment Approaches, and Agenda for Future Research

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An analysis of how the family behaviour which might affect the family business

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Bangkok’s Only Michelin-Starred Street Food Vendor Wants to Give Back Star

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Bangkok’s Only Michelin-Starred Street Food Vendor Wants to Give Back Star

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Raan Jay Fai Case Study

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People passing by Maha Chai Road, almost on the corner of Soi Samran Rat in the Phra Nakhon area of Bangkok, might be startled by the crowd snaking down the footpath around an impromptu assembly of plastic tables. As they wait in line, crowd members take out their cell phones to snap pictures of the "crab omelet queen," newly famous after Bangkok's first-ever Michelin Guide awarded her eatery Raan Jay Fai one Michelin star.

Ever since Michelin - the French tire company that also publishes international dining guides - announced that it would be publishing a guide to Bangkok, many wondered whether the guide, famous for favoring European fine dining, would include the city's thriving street food scene in its starred recommendations. ("Most people I spoke with in the local food scene believe Michelin will give a nod... to some of Bangkok's generations-old shop houses," wrote Eater contributor Micaela Marini Higgs last summer.)

When the guide came out in December, Raan Jay Fai, a popular eatery in Bangkok's Old Town, was the only street food venue in the city to be awarded a star, appearing alongside 13 other restaurants with one star (and three with two stars). Since the announcement, the distinction has drawn the attention of tourists, foodies, and even a couple of curious tax department officials to Raan Jay Fai's small space.

"I wish I could give the star back already," says Supinya Junsuta, Raan Jay Fai's chef and owner - but at this point, everyone, including the 72-year-old cook herself, calls Supinya "Jay Fai." Jay Fai made the spot famous with her signature khai jeaw poo (crab omelet), poo phad phong karee (stir-fried crab made with curry), and noodle dishes; her desire to give the Michelin star back wouldn't be the first time a chef expressed that wish.

On an afternoon two weeks after the Bangkok Michelin announcement, Jay Fai tries not to take her eyes - prudently covered with ski goggles, her trademark - from the hot oil pan above the charcoal flames where she cooks beaten eggs with crab meat. She seems annoyed by the sudden attention of her restaurant and concisely responds to questions from journalists, while not for a minute diminishing her movements to prepare the orders that never stop coming.

"Many people come just to see and take pictures and not necessarily to eat," she says. Even so, wait time for tables can be up to two hours during the busiest times of day, such as right after the restaurant opens at 3 p.m. A handwritten sign on the register warns: "Time not guaranteed."

After the Michelin boom, Raan Jay Fai created a reservation system to account for the demand for a seat, and Jay Fai's daughter Yuwadee Junsuta quit her job so she could start working full-time with her mother and her sister, Varisa Junsuta. "Now we advise people to make a reservation in advance by calling us," she says.

In the small room with less than a dozen tables, three waiters work to serve all the guests. Varisa Junsuta is exclusively in charge of the queue, managing the names and calling the clients in order to seat them. Jay Fai cooks alone behind wooden screens that separate her from the crowd. It's a safety measure to protect the patrons from the scalding oil where she deep fries many dishes. In addition to wearing goggles to protect herself, Jay Fai covers her head in a black beanie and uses long skimmers to stir the food.

Jay Fai has been cooking since she was a child. She took over the venue from her father when she was a young woman, becoming famous among chefs and gourmands mostly thanks to the quality of her ingredients. As a result, she charges more for her dishes: Her signature crab omelet costs around $25 USD, as do many of her other items, such as seafood rad na, a popular lunch dish made with rice noodles. An abalone dish can cost around $300 USD. "I only cook with the best ingredients," she explains.

Jay Fai is the latest street food spot to win a nod from Michelin. In 2016, two modest Singapore food stalls (Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle and Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle) made history by becoming the first street vendors to be awarded stars by the prestigious guide, and in 2015, Michelin announced a new street food category for the 2016 Hong Kong Macau Guide.

"Street food has evolved and improved so much that Michelin judges had to pay more attention to this," says chef Gaggan Anand, who runs two-Michelin-starred restaurant Gaggan in Thailand's capital. "We have more than a hundred Jay Fais in Bangkok. But she became so famous that she called their attention because of her great job."

However, the Michelin honor doesn't mean that street food proprietors like Jay Fai are getting rich. Jay Fai says that she hasn't raised her prices since being included in the guide, although she has increased her spending since then, purchasing more ingredients to meet demand. "I would have lost customers if I [raised prices]," she explains.

Jay Fai works from 2 p.m. to 1 a.m. every day except Sundays, her day off. Varisa Junsuta says her mother is getting tired more easily with all the Michelin-exacerbated hustle and bustle.

"Customers, nowadays, come with higher expectations and they basically look for the Michelin star sign as well as the Michelin-standard food," Yuwadee Junsuta says. "But hopefully on their second or third visit, they will come to look for Jay Fai herself, and ask for their favorite dishes like our other regular customers." This, she says, might be the most positive effect of Raan Jay Fai's sudden fame.

"Before or after Michelin, we see ourselves the same way, while others might see us as a Michelin-star restaurant. Anyway, Jay Fai is still Jay Fai," Yuwadee Junsuta adds. "Whenever the customers come to us and say that they love our food, we are rewarded a million stars that matter every day."
Rafael Tonon is a Brazilian journalist and food writer based in São Paulo.
Editor: Monica Burton

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Bangkok's Most Famous Street Food Vendor Regrets Getting a Michelin Star

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People passing by Maha Chai Road, almost on the corner of Soi Samran Rat in the Phra Nakhon area of Bangkok, might be startled by the crowd snaking down the footpath around an impromptu assembly of plastic tables.

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Raan Jai Fai review from a website which the content is about gastronomic tourism.

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Following my trip to Nepal, I had an overnight layover in Bangkok. When I booked my stay at the fantastic Rosewood Bangkok I had asked the concierge to assist in booking at table at Raan Jay Fai, the now world famous Michelin-starred, goggle wearing Thai street food queen. The restaurant opens reservation 2 months in advance, and it can be done via phone or email, but probably easiest to do via local contact like hotel concierge. Now, you can still join the line on the daily and most likely will be seated at some point. But reservations highly recommended. It is cash only, and bring a lot, because while this may be considered street food, the prices are most certainly not your average street food price, expect to pay more than USD$100 total as a group of 2 or more people if you want to try 3-5 dishes plus drinks.

Ultimately is it worth the journey out to the Western part of town nowhere near public transportation (take a Grab or taxi) to enjoy this meal? Yes, if you have reservations. I am not sure I'd wait hours in line for it. It is pricey, but Jay Fai is very generous with the amount of high quality fresh crab and seafood she adds to each dish, fairly sure I had more sweet juicy crab meat in this meal than eating a dungeness or hairy crab feast anywhere in the world.

Jay Fai most definitely became famous from Netflix's "Street Food" series and subsequently her Michelin-star. The image of a tiny Thai lady wearing goggles and tossing her wok in a huge flurry of flames at the corner of her restaurant in Bangkok is now ubiquitous when one thinks of Bangkok street food, a core Thai culture that was once threatened to end not so long ago when the government nearly banned street food. Now, I must say now that this should in no way overshadow the abundance of other wonderfully tasty street food choices in Bangkok, but personally I just had to see for myself if the hype was real, especially that famous Crab Omelette.
The Meal
We had made a reservation for 9PM on a Friday night. With Bangkok traffic I arrived at 9:15, thankfully my brother-in-law had already arrived. I believe they hold tables for 15 minutes. You simply show them the email confirmation and you are shown to your table. It is more a corner restaurant than street stall. Nonetheless all the action happens in the front corner of the restaurant. Its become so much of a tourist attraction that there a signs in front of Jay Fai and her cooking station that say "please no flash." Many pass by just to see her in action and dont line up or actually want to eat, she herself is a celebrity.

The space is not big but they certainly pack it in tight. During our meal there was a large group of around 10 or 12 and then us two and a couple other smaller groups. I would later learn that large group was Alain Ducasse and his Bangkok team, I did not recognize him without glasses!

You sit down and they bring menus. Jay Fai's daughter handles reservations and is the main one who speaks English though the rest of the main staff speak English well enough. The menu is fairly straight forward and everything has English translations as well as prices. The most expensive item is the Crab Omelette coming in at a whopping 1000 Bhat, or USD$31.

We placed our orders of food and drinks. The beer came immediately. The food however takes a few minutes. Why? Because it is literally Jay Fai herself and only herself cooking every dish that every table orders. The other kitchen staff are merely there to help plate/ get ingredients and hep Jay Fai out. As such, while it takes at time more than half an hour for your food to come, you can literally see Jay Fai cooking away and it is quality and craft guruanteed as there is only one chef, no sous chef or trainee.

We ordered Crab Omelette, Drunken Noodles, Curry Crab and Dry Tom Yum. All were absolutely fantastic. While the Crab Omelette lived up to the hype, perfectly crunchy fried egg on the outside, cut it open to reveal heap of giant juicy sweet chunks of crab, it was a few other dishes that for us were exceptional. The Drunken Noodle was by far the best I have ever had, I am not sure what it was but in her sauce there is a little something extra that allows the flavor profile of each bite to evolve. Curry Crab was also incredible, a dry curry dish but the crab was once again giant and fresh and the curry sauce was perfect.

I dont remember the exact final bill but it was more than USD$100 for the two of us. I was glad we had reservations and in my opinion because of that and the fact that Jay Fai really does cook everything herself and that the dishes did not disappoint, I thought it was well worth my effort, time and money. I am not 100% I would feel as happy or satisfied had I waited in line outside for hours, thankfully they have seats and its not standing in the Bangkok heat/humidity.

If you have plans to be in Bangkok, definitely have your hotel concierge or local friend/family help make a reservation two months ahead of your planned visit to Raan Jay Fai. Oh and dont worry, at 9PM there was plenty of Crab Omelette and Curry to go around.

Raan Jay Fai (google maps has 2 pins for the restaurant, either is correct)

327 Maha Chai Rd, Samran Rat, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200, Thailand

2PM/3PM-12AM, Mon-Sat

Reservations recommended, open 2 months out

Take taxi or Grab.

Best,

TheGastronomicTraveler

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Background Following my trip to Nepal, I had an overnight layover in Bangkok. When I booked my stay at the fantastic Rosewood Bangkok I had asked the concierge to assist in booking at table at Raan Jay Fai, the now world famous Michelin-starred, goggle wearing Thai street food queen.

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Meet The 74-Year-Old Queen Of Bangkok Street Food Who Netted A Michelin Star

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Meet The 74-Year-Old Queen Of Bangkok Street Food Who Netted A Michelin Star

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Raan Jai Fai news, broadcasted by Radio Station

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Bangkok is legendary for its fun and its food. Especially its street food. And one vendor's is so good, it has earned a Michelin star for the second year running.

Raan Jay Fai is a small, seven-table joint in Old Bangkok that'd be easy to miss if it weren't for the line.

There's always a line.

You can try to make a reservation, but the place - named after its chef/owner, a local legend - is usually booked a month or two out. Signing up for the walk-in list is the best bet for many, especially tourists. But you need to get there early.

"I got here at 7:30 [a.m.]," says 24-year old Kashmira Velji, from Austin, Texas, who was determined to try Jay Fai after viewing the chef's star turn on the recent Netflix special Street Food. Never mind that the restaurant doesn't open for lunch until 2 p.m.

"Everybody we've met on this trip, nobody we've talked to who's been here actually made it inside to eat," she says. "They told us that they'd gotten here at 9 or 10 [a.m.], that they'd been number 30 on the list and they couldn't wait that long to get food. So I was like, we're showing up [early] and we're getting a table."

It worked. Getting there at 7:30 a.m. made Velji and her friend, Ana Wong, first on the walk-in list. Seven hours later, they were biting into Jay Fai's signature khai jeaw poo, or crab omelette.

"I've never had anything like this before," Velji says between bites. "I'm not making it up, I'm not exaggerating, it's actually amazing. Like, it's light and airy but it's also ... hardy," she says, somewhat puzzled. "Our first bites were very intense. We kind of just stayed silent and were in shock at how good it tastes."

Suparat Tretachayakorn - a doctor - isn't shocked at all. He's a regular. And the crab omelette is one of his go-to dishes.

"It's pure joy," he says. He's here with a few colleagues who've just polished off not one but two of the crab omelettes, each stuffed with roughly a pound of crab meat.

"It's so fresh, and it's a really big lump," he says. "And the way that she fried it, it's not very oily, it's not greasy at all. When you cut it open, it just oozes this creaminess inside and you go 'wow.' It's unbelievable."

He and his friends have also ordered Jay Fai's famous tom yum soup, and half a dozen other dishes. Tom yum is a Thai staple - made with shrimp, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, chilies, garlic and mushrooms - and it's found almost everywhere. But that doesn't mean it's always good.

"Actually, I don't normally order tom yum because I know that I'm going to be disappointed at most places," he says. "It's very difficult to execute well, very difficult to do it justice like this," he says. "The one here I order every time."

And Jay Fai appears to have defied logic with something she calls dry tom yum. It's another of her signature dishes. One that's got the visitor from Austin, Velji, baffled. In a good way.

"It tastes just like the soup, but it's dry," she says. "It's exactly the same flavors of the tom yum soup, but instead of slurping it, I'm chewing it and I'm still getting all those sour, spicy flavors," she says. I ask her how that's possible. She shakes her head. "She's magic, man. I don't know. She's got a special power. She's superhuman."

Her friend, Wong, - who had been skeptical a little earlier (remember the seven-hour wait?) - isn't anymore. The two have managed to finish a crab omelette, the dry tom yum and a plate of drunken noodles.

"There are no words to describe it. I mean, it's amazing," she says. "Just different flavors not overpowering one another - you can taste each one of them. "It's impressive. I give it a 10!"

"I give it a 15!" Velji interjects. She's not feeling at all foolish about getting here so early - which she had felt just a few hours ago.

"Now, I'm just looking at all these people lined up outside," Velji says. "We have the best seats. We have the best food. Everybody out there is staring at us, and we're in here enjoying the best meal we'll probably ever have," she says, motioning to the 30 or so people waiting outside in the blistering heat. "We're smart girls to show up that early. We're doers."

And part of the fun, they both say, is watching the maestro at work. The 74-year-old Jay Fai cooks everything herself - over two blazing charcoal fires, in the alley next to the busy street, while patrons snap pictures of her from a distance.

She wears a wool cap, a gray camouflage shirt with a long black apron and huge safety goggles to ward off the heat and fire. She is a dervish who barks orders to her underlings, who are quick to bring her whatever she asks. Ingredients for the next dish. Fresh woks to cook with. And more charcoal - always more charcoal - to keep the heat consistent.

"It's faster to cook when using charcoal, to stir-fry vegetables," Jay Fai says. "The charcoal makes everything very hot very quickly. Just don't put too much oil," she warns. "Put lots of chicken broth. The vegetables will be crispy and fresh and taste good."

And Jay Fai is a perfectionist - so much so that she doesn't let anyone else on her staff do the cooking. That's another reason why it takes so long to get your food here - even with reservations.

"They can't do it. This is very hard to do," she says. "It's not that I don't want them to do it, I do. But even when they watch me, they can't remember anything." And it's not just her staff she doubts. "The new generation, I can tell you, they can't do it to my level. I do things quickly and keep the quality good, too," she says.

Her real name is Supinya Jansuta, but everyone calls her Jay Fai. It roughly translates to "Sister Mole," a reference to a birthmark next to her nose. She says she learned to cook from her mom, who sold noodle soup with pork and chicken.

"To be a cook, you need skill. I didn't go to school, but I lived and cooked with my parents. When we went out to eat in a restaurant," she says, "I would watch them cook and taste the food, poke it around the plate and look at what ingredients they were using. Then I came back to experiment at home."

Eventually she started her own business, relentlessly sampling other people's food in order to adapt it, she says. To make it better - and to make it her own.

"I tried to cook every night after I closed the restaurant," she says. "I experimented until I got a dish right, to make a dish people wanted."

In the process, she decided to switch things up, forgoing the usual street food ingredients for the highest-quality ingredients possible - especially seafood. And she charged a lot more for it in the process.

Some told her it wouldn't work. She didn't listen. And her business grew. Fast. Enough for her to buy the shop house where she's been cooking for the past 40 years. She starts cooking as soon as the restaurant opens and doesn't stop until it closes well after midnight.

And about that Michelin star: When she got the first phone call, she kind of blew them off. By accident.

"I was confused," she says. "They said they wanted to invite me to an event, a gala dinner, and I said, 'Oh, my, a gala dinner, no thank you. I don't want to go. What would I wear?' "

They called again. She politely declined again. The third time they called, she gave the phone to her daughter, who immediately understood why they were calling and told her mother she had to go. Which she did, though she had to be helped to the stage when her name was called. "I stood there dumbfounded," she says. "They asked me how I felt and I said, 'I'm in shock.' "

She's grumbled about it a bit since - about the crowds that have come with the fame. But she says she's happy.

"To be honest, it was the high point of my life. If I die now, if anything happens now, I'm OK with it. I'll die peacefully."

Jay Fai says her daughter wants her to quit cooking soon. She's not sure she can.

"This is my passion," she says. "And my art." The thought of seeing Jay Fai hang up her goggles and apron terrifies her Thai regulars like Suparat.

"The last time I talked to her, she said that she was admitted to the hospital and she was actually afraid she could not come back and work here anymore," he says. "I would say selfishly, I hope that she could go on and on. I don't know how many years," he says. "But I just hope as long as possible. This is something I cherish. I love street food. And this is the quintessential street food of Bangkok," he insists. "I can say 100% it is not hype. It's that good."

But it ain't cheap. A three-dish meal here can set you back about $75, in a country where you can get a decent meal on the street for less than $2. And there's been some sniping about it online. "This is something that upsets me quite a lot," Suparat says. "I can guarantee you most of them have never come here. If they had, they would not complain."

The two young women from Texas aren't complaining. "It was worth it 100%," Velji says. "This is probably going to be the cheapest Michelin star meal we'll ever have." Wong agrees completely. "In the United States, we pay $75 to go out on a Saturday night and it's not even memorable," she says.

"Totally worth it," Velji says of waiting seven hours to sit and eat. "That sounds embarrassing, but yes, it was."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Let's go to Bangkok, Thailand, a city known for its street food. One vendor's street food is so good it has earned a Michelin star for the second year running and also earned her a starring role in the new Netflix documentary series called "Street Food." Her name is Supinya Jansuta, but everybody calls her Jay Fai, which is also the name of the restaurant. Here's Michael Sullivan.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Kashmira Velji, a tourist from Austin, Texas, wanted to eat at Jay Fai's bad after she saw the Netflix doc. How bad?

KASHMIRA VELJI: We got here at 7:30.

SULLIVAN: For a place that doesn't even open till 2 in the afternoon.

VELJI: Everybody we've talked to had told us that they had got here at 9 or they had got here at 10. They ended up being number 30 on the list, and they couldn't wait that long to get food. So I was like, well, we're showing up, and we're getting the table.

SULLIVAN: And she did. Seven hours later, they were biting into Jay Fai's signature crab omelet.

VELJI: I've never had anything like this before. Like, it's light and airy, but it's also hardy.

SULLIVAN: And then there was the dry tom yum, another Jay Fai specialty.

VELJI: So it's exactly the same flavors of the tom yum soup, but instead of, like, slurping it, I'm chewing it. And I'm eating it and I'm still getting all those sour, spicy flavors.

SULLIVAN: How can she do that?

VELJI: She's magic, man. I don't know. She's just - she's got special powers.

SULLIVAN: Her friend, Ana Wong, who'd been a little skeptical a little earlier, surrendered.

ANA WONG: It's amazing. Just delicious flavors, and they're not overpowering one another. You can taste each one of them and - impressive.

JAY FAI: (Foreign language spoken).

SULLIVAN: And part of the fun, they both say, was watching the dishes get made. The 74-year-old Jay Fai cooks everything herself over two blazing charcoal fires in the alley next to the street wearing a wool cap and huge bug eye safety goggles to ward off the heat and fire. Why won't she let anyone else cook?

FAI: (Through interpreter) They can't do it. This is very hard to do. It's not that I don't want them to do it. But even when they watch me, they can't remember anything.

SULLIVAN: Jay Fai says she learned to cook from her mom who sold noodle soup with pork or chicken, then got her own place and always - always, she says - she was watching others cook then trying to do it better.

FAI: (Through interpreter) I tried to cook every night after I closed the restaurant. I experimented until I got a dish right.

SULLIVAN: It worked, and then some. When she got her Michelin star, she says, she was blown away. And though she's grumbled about it a little since, about the crowds that have come with the fame, she says she's happy.

FAI: (Through interpreter) To be honest, it was the high point of my life. If I die now, if anything happens now, I'm happy.

SULLIVAN: Jay Fai says her daughter wants her to quit cooking soon. She's not sure she can. This is my passion, she says, and my art. And the thought of her hanging up her goggles and apron terrifies her Thai regulars.

SUPARAT TRETACHAYAKORN: Selfishly, I hope that she could go on and on. I don't know how many years, but I just hope as long as possible.

SULLIVAN: Suparat Tretachayakorn, a doctor, is here with a bunch of friends.

TRETACHAYAKORN: This is something that I cherish. I love street food, and this is, like, the quintessential street food of Bangkok.

SULLIVAN: But it ain't cheap. A three-dish meal here will set you back about $75 in a country where you can get a decent street meal for less than $2. Jay Fai has taken a little flak for that but doesn't much care. Oh, and you can make reservations to avoid waiting in line. You just have to book a month or so in advance.

For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Bangkok. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Meet The 74-Year-Old Queen Of Bangkok Street Food Who Netted A Michelin Star

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Bangkok is legendary for its fun and its food. Especially its street food. And one vendor's is so good, it has earned a Michelin star for the second year running. Raan Jay Fai is a small, seven-table joint in Old Bangkok that'd be easy to miss if it weren't for the line.

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A review from food & travel bloggers

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You may have seen the news that the Michelin Guide once again decided to decorate a street food vendor with one of their highest accolades when they launched their Bangkok guide for 2018. Similar to Singapore's hawker stall Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle, who was awarded one Michelin star in 2016, so was the street food queen of Bangkok in November last year. We visited the city in January this year and were lucky enough to have Gaggan Anand (two-Michelin-starred chef and owner of Asia's Best Restaurant the last four consecutive years) to guide us around the city for a couple of days. He took us to taste some of his favorite Thai restaurants and street food vendors, including, of course, Raan Jay Fai.

Raan Jay Fai - The Restaurant of Sister Mole

Technically, Raan Jay Fai is not a street food vendor as the eatery is situated in a typical Thai shophouse. Jay Fai, or Supinya Junsuta which is her real name, is not out on the streets with a wheeled food cart. Instead, she's located at a permanent spot in a brick and mortar shop on Maha Chai Road in the Samran Rat neighborhood. Always sporting a perfect red lipstick, and wearing her iconic ski goggles, a knitted hat, and colorful rubber boots - all meant to protect her from the heat and scalding-hot oil. The name Raan Jay Fai means the restaurant of Sister Mole, referring to the characteristic mole on her neck.

Long before the Michelin guide came along and passed their judgment, Jay Fai had been a well-known figure on the streets of Bangkok, attracting a constant crowd of spectators eager to watch her perform. The skilled chef cooks almost all of the food herself, with only a few assistants to help her out in the kitchen and waiting tables. All dishes are cooked one by one in big woks placed over blazing hot charcoal fires inside old braziers in an outdoor kitchen.

Drunken Noodles & Crab Omelet at Raan Jay Fai

Gaggan had reserved seats well in advance (booking is a must these days - call +66 2223 9384) and helped us place an order for all the classics on the menu and some of his personal favorites. Two dishes you cannot miss at Raan Jay Fai are drunken noodles and the crab omelet. The drunken noodles ( Phad-Kee-Mao Talay) are stir-fried flat rice noodles with a hot and spicy sauce, basil leaves, fresh chili and a selection of seafood. They cost 400 Baht, which is quite pricey for Thai street food, but the quality of the ingredients and the complex and delicious flavors make it worth it. I loved these sticky noodles.

If you think that's expensive, then the 1000 Baht crab omelet ( Kai-Jeaw Poo) should come as a real shock. That's more than 30 USD, and would even be an expensive medium-sized dish in Norway. However, when you observe Jay Fai cook it, gently wrapping egg and lump crab together while it bathes in sizzling hot oil, you better understand the work that goes into each serving and the time it must have taken to learn the skill. Even better, when you bite into the fluffy roll - sweet, salty, and umami-rich - you quickly forget about the money you just spent. It's slightly on the dry side, though, surprisingly enough when you consider the cooking technique, so make sure to dip it in hearty amounts of the accompanying chili sauce.

Other dishes we enjoyed at Jay Fai were the yellow curry ( Poo Phad) with crab and onion (a favorite of Gaggan - and mine), Tom-Yum Goong soup, and fried rice with egg and crab ( Kao Phad). You are seated in simple surroundings, drinking cheap beers that you have to finish fast in the heat, and equipped with plenty of paper napkins to clean up the mess you're making. I think all these elements contribute to even more enjoyment of the food and the people you share the meal with. Hopefully, this wasn't my last visit to Raan Jay Fai.

Wanna read more about the street food queen of Bangkok? I recommend the awesome food blogger DanielFoodDiary.

What's your favorite shophouse eatery in Bangkok? Please share in a comment below.

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Jay Fai - The Street Food Queen of Bangkok

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You may have seen the news that the Michelin Guide once again decided to decorate a street food vendor with one of their highest accolades when they launched their Bangkok guide for 2018.