Sketches of Spain
Tapas dishes
If you find yourself in Phnom Penh and overwhelmed by a craving for tapas the collective name for those platefuls of Spanish tidbits that accompany drinking or form a prelude to a meal then you're in luck. You'll find the only tapas bar (and Spanish restaurant) in Cambodia, perched on the second floor of a restored colonial villa at Sisowath Quay.
The warmly lit wooden interiors and tiled balcony at Pacharan Tapas & Bodega, tel: (855-23) 224 394, hum with flamenco music and the chatter of aid workers and tourists. Start by rinsing away the capital's dust and heat with a glass of chilled rosé from a drinks list that is dominated by Spanish wines but includes pacharán the Navarrese sloe gin that lends the restaurant its name. Then order some classic tapas nutty Iberian ham, spiced shrimp and oil-drenched salads (skip the uninspired tomato bread) to tide you over the 30-minute wait for seafood paella. Okay, paella isn't strictly speaking a tapas dish, but when it's this moist and intensely flavored who cares?
Pacharan is the latest venture from the Indochina Assets Group, whose nearby flagship bar-restaurant, the Foreign Correspondents Club, has long shed its roots as a rowdy journalist hangout to become a slick fixture on the tourist trail. If you fancy a tapeo that's the Spanish term for a tapas bar crawl then your next stop is Vietnam, where the group runs a branch of Pacharan in Ho Chi Minh City, tel: (84-8) 825 6024.
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