Chilean cuisine is a fusion of European and native influences and ingredients that celebrates the bounty of land and sea in this 2,700-mile-long country sandwiched between the Andes and the Pacific.

On a trip to Patagonia several years ago, my first taste of Chile was a bowl of steaming crab soup in a picada (family-style restaurant) that warmed me from the cold sleet. At Viva Chile, a new place in Davie, a mixed seafood soup in a briny broth spiked with paprika oil reminded me of that comforting meal.

Owners Isabel Klagges and Maria Angelica San Juan have created a Broward hangout for Chileans and other fans of the country's flavorful, not-too-spicy-hot cuisine.

Isabel is from Valdivia in central Chile, where she learned to cook from her German father and Chilean mother. After moving to South Florida 10 years ago, she worked in a Chilean restaurant in Miami-Dade, and came to see a market for one north of the county line.

As the hands-on partner, Isabel oversees the kitchen and waits tables with the help of manager Carlos Mena. A native of Vina de Mar, a coastal town east of Santiago, Carlos lost his property-management job in the real estate crash, and fell back on early experience as a waiter. If not fluent in Spanish, ask for him.

Be sure to try the small, fried, cheese empanadas called fritas or the baked, burrito-shaped brethren (choose shredded chicken or ground beef stuffing) along with pebre, a tomato, onion, and chile sauce that adds zip to any dish.

To sample some the strange creatures that lurk in the cold waters off the Chilean coast, try locos (mollusks similar to abalone served in mayo dressing) or machas a la Parmesana (pink razor clams broiled in white wine under a bubbling layer of cheese).

Pastel de choclo is the national dish, based on shepherd's pie but made with ground beef and capped with creamed corn.

If there's a national fish, it is congrio (cusk-eel, also known as king clip), celebrated by Chile's Nobel laureate, Pablo Neruda, in his Ode to Fish Chowder. Here, fillets of its scallop-like flesh are fried and served with salad or grilled and topped with fried eggs.

Sweet endings include a peach and wheat berry beverage, but my choice was chilenitos, puff pastry rounds sandwiched with caramel and encased in a meringue shell. One bite brought me back to Chile.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.

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