The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 436

Lu 3, A FORK ON THE ROAD La Saya offers welcome FOOD DINING PHOTOS BY LINDA THE HERALD BROTHERS FROM BOLIVIA: Angel, Julio and Salomon Meneses own La Saya. WARMING FARE: Bolivian chicharrones with purple potatoes and hominy. (freeze-dried purple potatoes). For slightly lighter fare, try sopa de peanut soup topped with shoestring potatoes. In Bolivia, one would drink chicha, a strong brew made from fermented corn chewed with coca leaves to counter altitude sickness.

Here try chicha morada, soft cider made from boiled purple corn and apple, pineapple and lemon juices. Coffee, sweet tamales and jelled, cinnamon-spiced milk round out the meal. Open just two months, La Saya has the 9 2005 FEBRUARY THURSDAY, Blink and you might miss the small banner tied to the brick-red building at the corner of Northeast 20th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. It says La Saya Restaurant, and unless you're Bolivian, the meaning is another obscurity to ponder in an often mystifying LINDA BLADHOLM food city. To the 4,000 Bolivians in South Florida, the sign is a siren song to celebrate food and culture.

La Saya the first Bolivian restaurant we've found in South Florida is named for a form of Afro-Bolivian music and dance from the Yungas lowland, where descendants of African slaves settled. Expatriates gather there to play cacho (a dice game), drink cold beer and eat a hearty urban Andean fusion of meat, potatoes and peppery sauces. The is vaguely Mexican with dark red walls, a varnished wood bar and iron chandeliers, but the congenial atmosphere is pure Bolivian. The creators of that welcoming warmth are Julio, Angel and Salomon Meneses, brothers from La Paz who produce TV programs about Bolivian and Aymara culture (the Indian ethnicity of most La Paz natives). Angel and Salomon are also musicians, and their evening performances set customers shaking llamahoof rattles, blowing (small reed pipes) and dancing between the tables.

Bolivians stop in for a quick bite or launch a long evening with an order of (pictured on Page 7), also called empanadas caldosas, golden pastries tinted with aji amarillo (yellow chile paste) and stuffed with beef stew. The name comes from the Salta region in northern Argentina, where Bolivian women nicknamed sought better fortune in hard times by making and selling the turnovers. The chef is a tiny woman named Rosemary Ali who turns out huge entrees that should be shared. Biggest is pique macho "hot and strong," a mix of fried, chopped steak, sausage, bell peppers and French fries in a tangy pepper sauce garnished with tomato slices and hard cooked eggs. The "macho" comes from liberal applications of the quintessential Bolivian hot sauce, llajua, made from green chiles, locoto (one of the world's hottest chiles), tomatoes and an Andean herb with a cilantro-like taste.

Beef replaces the traditional cuy (guinea pig) in falso conejo, "fake rabbit," a stew with potatoes and rice. Silpancho is a broad, thin, breaded steak topped with sunny-side eggs and fried potatoes. Chicharron brings hunks of crispy fried pork plated with mote (large hominy corn) and SOUP ers add hot sauce to taste at This soup is quite mild, as dinBOLIVIAN PEANUT SOUP 07V83H3H1 the table. Serve with crusty bread and a green salad with If food woo avocado. using a processor, take care not to grind the peanuts into peanut butter.

1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium yellow onion, peeled, quartered and chopped Chopped flat leaf parsley (about 1 tablespoon) 5 cups low-salt chicken broth (homemade or canned) Salt and freshly ground pepper 1 pound red-skinned potatoes (about 4 medium), cut into 2-inch cubes 2 medium carrots, scraped and chopped in 1-inch segments cup raw, skinless peanuts, coarsely ground cup frozen peas, thawed Shoestring potatoes to garnish (homemade or canned) Heat the oil in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook the onion until soft, about 4 minutes. Stir in the parsley, broth, salt and pepper to taste, potatoes, carrots and peanuts. Reduce the heat and simmer about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the peas and cook another minute or so.

Serve garnished with shoestring potatoes. Makes 4 servings. Source: Adapted from Marie Alicia Parkerson. Per serving: 270 calories (40 percent from fat), 12.6 fat (1.7 saturated, 6 monounsaturated), 0 cholesterol, 10.7 protein, 31.6 carbohydrates, 6.1 fiber, 422.2 mg sodium. makings of a hugely popular hangout that's sure to warm your heart with its sincerity.

Place: La Saya Bolivian Restaurant. Address: 2041 Biscayne Miami. Contact: 305-571-9773. Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

Prices: Starters soups entrees desserts MORE ONLINE Find a recipe for pique macho (spicy beef and sausage) and take part in Linda Bladholm's online forum at herald.com/liv ing; click Food..