A Taste of Miami's New Vice

By CATHY BOOTH MIAMI

For foodies, Florida was never a big stop on the U.S. eating circuit. Tourists ate fish, most often frozen. Frozen crab cakes. Frozen fried shrimp. Frozen Dover sole. For authenticity, there were boiled stone crabs, alligator for the hardy and lots of Key lime pie. In Guide Michelin terms, not worth a detour.

Nowadays, however, food lovers from all over are unfolding napkins in southern Florida. Instead of baby carrots and sun-dried tomatoes, try a red- snapper burger seasoned with cilantro, dill and hot-hot Scotch bonnet peppers. Or sauteed pompano dusted with crushed pistachios, served with a light fricassee of lobster, mango and fire-roasted pepper.

What do you call a cuisine that offers plantain flan, mango tabbouleh and a boniato-yuca torta? Miamamerican cooking? Nuevo Mundo cuisine? Nuevo Cubano? Whatever the tag, Miami chefs are winning applause with fresh fish, tropical fruits and exotic root vegetables, eclipsing the now hackneyed blackened- everything cuisine that emanated from New Orleans in the early '80s. Bits of many cultures make up the local hybrid, including updated Latin, Italian and Oriental dishes. Grilling, influenced by Caribbean barbe, is an essential technique. Not-too-sweet, not-too-tart salsas, mojos and adobados based on local fruits are vital flavoring ingredients.

Miami's South Beach is the center of the gourmet trend. Less than five years ago, SoBe's Ocean Drive had just one restaurant; now more than 35 bars, restaurants and cafes dot the beach, the best being Norman Van Aken's coolly modern A Mano. Regulars at the year-old hot spot dig into Vietnamese spring rolls with seared, black sesame seed-coated swordfish, or rum-painted grouper with a tangy-sweet mango mojo and crispy plantain curl. "The idea is for chefs trained in Old World methods to use New World ingredients," Van Aken says.

Some of the best-known exemplars of the new tropical taste are hidden away in suburban shopping strips. At Chef Allen's in North Miami Beach, Allen Susser's most popular dishes include rock-shrimp hash topped by a mustardy sabayon sauce, followed perhaps by seared citrus-crusted yellowfin tuna with a macedoine of papaya, mango and yellow pepper. At Mark's Place, North Miami diners line up early for Mark Militello's signature dish, curry fried oysters nestled on a tamarind-banana salsa and West Indian bread, all topped with an orange sour cream. "It's a long way from fried dolphin fingers," says Militello, laughing.

Miami's new fare depends on a wealth of fresh tropical materials, but the pride of the region is still its fish. Indian River soft-shell crabs and conch are year-round regulars on menus, as are pompano, dolphinfish, yellowfin tuna and lesser-known delicacies like wahoo and cobia, both meatier, more flavorful catches. There are endless variations on snapper -- yellowtail, mangrove, hog and mutton -- all of them sweeter, firmer and more tender than the red snapper shipped out of state.

Farms down in steamy Homestead, southwest of Miami, provide lush purple mangoes, creamy-tasting red bananas, sweet sugar apples, globe-shaped canistels that taste like eggnog. On the edge of the Everglades, the husband- and-wife team of Marc and Kiki Ellenby are the only commercial producer of fresh litchi nuts in the U.S. "We're just beginning to use Florida's natural resources for cooking," says Susser. "The fun is that we're breaking new ground." The Caribbean, especially Cuban, influence is vital. Susser picks up recipes from his Haitian and Cuban kitchen help. A Haitian suggested poaching boniato, a white sweet potato, in milk before mashing it into a Cream of Wheat consistency that goes beautifully with grilled wahoo.

While Mediterranean and Pacific Rim touches enhance Miami's nouvelle cuisine, one ingredient that gives it such a distinctive lift is not a food at all, but sticky 90-degree heat and 90% humidity. To retain their allure under those sultry conditions, offerings must be satisfying but light and refreshing. "The flavors must make sense to a body in this heat," says Susser. Rather than being coated with flour, fish is citrus-crusted or dusted with crushed pistachios. Fruits lighten up even familiar entrees: Susser offers a sublime Key lime pasta.

Chef Douglas Rodriguez, at Yuca in Coral Gables, harks back to his Cuban- American roots in adding to the new vocabulary. One recent dinner featured teeny tamales stuffed with foie gras and duck confit; yellowtail snapper encrusted with a mix of avocado, stone-crab meat and crushed peanuts; and loin of pork filled with chorizo and smoked over guava bark. "Guava bark!" he says. "Who else is doing that?" More and more talented Floridians, happily, every day.