I'm going to have to eat at the original Taste of the Middle East tomorrow or very soon. I was only there once before but liked the food a lot.
Trivia: Opposite the restaurant you can see a sign for Banana Center. It was where the original Norton University campus was, before it went across the river.
This was, pre 1975, École Miche, a Catholic School run by the notorious Christian Brothers. Among their students was a certain Saloth Sar, who is said to have
come to resent the mainly Vietnamese make-up of the Catholic church in the region at the time. There was a church there which hasn't survived
but some of the nearby structures are still intact. Anyway, here's what it looked like on the corner of 118 and 19:

And more recently;


Sorry for going off topic, definitely going to go and eat some shwarma and falafel and hummus etc tomorrow.

The Banana Centre, LOL

Good place to work, Robert Wightman was in charge, decent boss.Crazy name, but one of the best places to work, Peter Luff (?), Maria, iirc, the lady from Romania. Khmer friend used to teach MCSE computer cert there.

Arrived at work there one day, military had closed the place, a pity, lost my books and a 160GB Ipod, they never let us go in. Apparently co-owner pissed off the wrong people.

We got paid for two weeks to drink coffee, I was surprised

There's a disused Catholic church down a back alley between St47 - the street between Wat Phnom and the Japanese bridge. There's an alley near a war that runs down to the riverside from st 47 and in there is the old church. Found it one time when trying to escape a traffic jam. Haven't been inside but imagine it's inhabited by squatters.

It's divided up inside into separate living sections, the dividers are only about 2.5 meters high though so there's little privacy or security.





From: http://phnompenhplaces.blogspot.com/200 ... rches.html

John Bingham wrote: ↑Fri Apr 06, 2018 5:47 pm It's divided up inside into separate living sections, the dividers are only about 2.5 meters high though so there's little privacy or security.





From: http://phnompenhplaces.blogspot.com/200 ... rches.html

I was at the original Taste of the Middle East yesterday, had a nice Shwarma wrap I could barely finish. I went there today hungry for a falafel, but totally forgot that Friday is mosque day.

And from the middle of next month they won't be open, not during the day anyway, for Ramadan.

Maybe there's an Israeli or Phalange run place that will be open during Ramadan?
Some of the best falafels I've had were from Israeli places.
One thing I noticed in the Taste of the Middle East was that,
in common with Indian restaurants for example,
most the dishes came in generous proportions
and corresponding price and would only make
sense to order if you were with a party of 6-8 people.
The wraps are great value, but most of the menu is
a bit useless if you're just after a meal for one.
It would be great if they figured out some
set-meal type thing, sort of like an Indian thali.