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Review | Basilic a delightful Vietnamese experience

The light, fragrant, healthful cuisine of Vietnam is perfect for South Florida, yet we're only beginning to embrace it. The love affair is bound to heat up with the opening of Basilic Vietnamese Grill in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, likely the only spot east of U.S. 441 specializing in dishes like pho, shaking beef and Vietnamese crepes.

Open two months, Basilic offers a large, intriguing menu that's exotic without being intimidating. Young, friendly American servers make the timid feel at ease. A few items are tweaked for the masses -- the banh mi (sub sandwich), for example, replaces classic ptés and hams with grilled chicken, beef or meatballs -- but the food is delicious and affordable.

Another value: $3-$4 beers, including China's Tsingtao and Thai's singha and wines mostly $17-$30 by the bottle and under $10 by the glass.

A Central American find on NE 79th Street

The homey Central American dishes at Café La Union attract a mixed crowd, from construction workers to artists, who grab stools at the long counter in back for a meal or snack or drop by in the evening to have a few beers, shoot pool and watch sports or play tunes on the jukebox.

Owners Victor and Alexandra Torres both arrived in Miami with their families in the mid 1980s, he from El Salvador, she from Nicaragua, to escape strife in the region. They met at Bayside 14 years ago.

When they bought La Union two years ago, Alexandra quit her banking job and hired her aunt, who cooked in Latin cafeterias. Her mom makes desserts like bread pudding, flan and rice pudding. On weekdays, Alexandra does everything from waiting on customers to cooking; on weekends, Victor pitches in.

Immigrant recreates flavor of Vietnam

Light, refreshing Vietnamese food is perfect on a sweltering summer day, and Saigon Cuisine in Margate, with the refurbished cyclo (rickshaw) at the entrance, is a great place to find it.

Chef-owner Young Le began his restaurant career in 1982, partnering with a brother-in-law to open Le House in Sunrise. He went back to Vietnam to hone his cooking skills at a friend's restaurant, and returned to open Saigon Cuisine seven years ago.

Like most Vietnamese-born Americans, Le left his homeland after Saigon's 1975 fall to the North Vietnamese. Because his father had been a colonel in the South Vietnamese army, life was especially difficult for his family, and in 1978 Le fled on a small boat.

Siam Bistro is an authentic family affair

Some restaurants boast of their Zagat listings or four-star ratings. Siam Bistro in West Kendall proudly displays its Thai Select Seal of Approval from Thailand's Ministry of Commerce.

Owner Samai ``Sam'' Mouthapong is from the Thai city of Lampang in the northern region sandwiched between Myanmar and Laos. He graduated from law school in Ramkom near Bangkok, but in 1987 decided to join his older brother Ongart in Miami, working in Thai restaurants. On a visit home six years ago, he met and married his wife, Warunee, who had gone to cooking school in Bangkok.

They opened the bistro two years ago, with Sam running the front of the house and his brother and wife sharing the cooking, using fresh herbs and aromatics they grow themselves. Though the brothers are from northern Thailand, food is in the familiar Bangkok style of the south. There are also Vietnamese dishes Ongart learned to make while living with a Vietnamese family in Miami.

Peruvian dishes honor an icon

Peru has some of the most diverse dishes in South America, and El Rincon de Chabuca (``Chabuca's hangout'') showcases many of them with an emphasis on seafood.

The unassuming place on Collins Avenue near 71st Street in Miami Beach opened 12 years ago. A year later the original owner sold it to Luz Estrella La Torre, a Colombian woman married to a Peruvian. She renamed it after the beloved Peruvian singer and composer Chabuca Granda, famed for her waltz with Afro-Caribbean rhythms in a song about a beautiful Creole woman named ``Cinnamon Flower.''

A year ago La Torre hired her brother-in-law Ernesto Montero to manage the restaurant with his wife Claudia Villegas (her sister). Villegas is the main chef and is assisted by three cooks trained by Peruvian Maritza Paz, who created the new menu.