The above photo is the fish amok from Malis restaurant in Phnom Penh : the same amok that I shot for the Wall Street Journal article. I expected that they’d use this photo rather than the one that they did : this is about as well as I can capture gratuitous, selectively-focused food porn without resorting to either Adobe Photoshop or a full-time photographer. The only food styling that I performed was to place a paper napkin under the banana leaf to soak up some of the wayward coconut milk. Otherwise, this is the amok that Malis serves every day.
Location: Malis, Norodom Blvd, just south of the Independence Monument.
See Also: Real Khmer? Cambodian Fine Dining in Phnom Penh, Seeing how the other half lives – Malis and Pacharan
I tried making the banana leaf cups but they collapsed. I must be doing something wrong. 🙁
Dear Rasa
To make a proper banana cup you must use 2 square banana leaf and stack them perpendicular to their fiber.Good luck
I love gratuitous food porn. And I prefer this version to the one AWSJ ran. I assume you had no say in the matter? At any rate, it just goes to show that highly styled food photography is overrated (and that, for that matter, styling is often unnecessary!).