Sketches of Spain

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.