Lebanese cuisine in Phnom Penh

Well, guess what?!?

I found out through the grapevine that a Lebanese restaurant called Le Cedre had opened somewhere along Bangkengkang area. Expats I know swear and rave about its authenticity. Naturally, the news got me excited.

It was three years ago when I had my first taste of Lebanese food. I was in Kuala Lumpur at that time when my Japanese friend Yumiko took me to a Lebanese restaurant along Bukit Bintang (if I am not mistaken) on her birthday. I couldn't remember what we ordered but one of the dishes we ordered resembled a pizza, and my, it was like love at first bite. I also remember sharing a puff of hookah with her. Just a puff, Ma.

So when I heard about a Lebanese restaurant opening here in Phnom Penh, I told myself to go back and relive the taste of Lebanese cuisine. After all, isn't love lovelier the second time around? When my feelers to R didn't work, two weeks ago I asked Toe, out of the blue, if she would like to go, too.

Now, my knowledge about Lebanese cuisine is next to none and the very fact that I would be dining with Toe, and with R deciding to come along at the last minute, I thought our lunch-date would be interesting.

As I am notorious for being late, R made sure that I got off work 10mins early. He showed up at my office, to the surprise of my officemates, nodded at me as if to say... pack up, we're leaving. In one minute he was going through the door... the next minute, we were already in the car, strapping our seatbelts on. How could I say no?

We arrived at Le Cedre earlier than planned and were greeted by the car-boy clad in traditional Lebanese costume. A pretty girl led us to one of the open-air tables passing through a charming yard shaded by a large canopy of trees. We chose to sit outside, al fresco. After settling in our seats, the waitress, also in Lebanese costume, came out and handed us the menu.

Toe arrived in time and so we studied the menu. A la carte, we found the mezze dishes (tabouleh, kibbeh, falafel, Lebanese pizza) from $2.90 to $5.20, main courses of fish and meat not exceeding $8.50, the famous chawarma (shawarma) $5.40 and $8.60, and desserts between $2 to $3. Commanding attention as well were the wide array of Lebanese wine and the narguileh, another name for hookah.

While waiting for the food, the three of us were engaged in a hearty conversation. Toe was very pleasant, and my shyness melted away. This wasn't the first time we had met Toe, but this was the only time we spent much time conversing with each other. In between giggles, and to borrow her words, momentary blabbers in Tagalog and gaps for translation for R, the three of us enjoyed the good food and company. Lebanese cuisine is definitely new to our palates, but nothing too exotic for our liking...

Our meal started with a mezze, we had sfiha, a traditional Lebanese pizza made with minced meat and spices.


For the main course, we had mixed grill and ouzi samak. The mixed grill is a medley of boneless chicken, minced lamb and beef (somehow rolled into a sausage), a very nice garlic sauce, rice and pita bread to wrap the meat with. Ouzi samak is a kind of pastry filled with spicy fish flakes (it's not that spicy), rice and other spices.


And for dessert, we had baklawa (baklava), a traditional and not to be missed Middle-eastern pastry filled with nuts. We all agreed that the baklawa we had was ooh-la-la scrumptious. Toe and R capped the meal with a strong but licorice-y Lebanese coffee while I tried the spiced tea... to my surprise, it had a delightful minty flavor. I am not a tea-drinker myself, but the spiced tea was definitely worth having.


We left Le Cedre satisfied and smiling. Props to Le Cedre!!! Hopefully there'll be belly dancers soon for more authentic experience... As Toe said, there may be an OFW deployment ban in Lebanon, but that would not stop us from going back to Le Cedre for their Lebanese cuisine. R and I liked the bakla very much-- oops! baklawa, I mean, that it's worth coming back just for that and more of Lebanese gastronic delights.