The beauty of Miami is that you can dine around the world without leavingtown. And one of the true local pleasures are the Nicaraguan steakhouses -colorful, whimsically decorated, bustling places where the parrilla (grill)and the party share equal billing. Two chains dominate the local scene - LosRanchos and today's topic, El Novillo, the smaller of the two, with two locations in Miami-Dade.

El Novillo is a comfortable, welcoming place with a kitschy hacienda decor.Sit at a booth, flip a switch and a ``painting'' lights up in the window. Agiant fountain is at the center of the room, its gentle water rush providingpleasurable white noise to compete with the excited chatter and recordedeasy-listening music.

Recipes are traditional, well-executed and interesting to explore. One wayto do just that is with a ``Nica-tizer'' sampler platter ($7.95, $14.95,$19.95, depending on size). The menu has lots of little bites to try, and eventhe small sampler has a half-dozen or so. Best might be tiny beef tacos,stuffed with tenderloin and fried into flautas, or baby flutes. They're crispand fresh, with savory meat. Also good are homemade country sausage, servedwith a puckery slaw salad; soft, salty fried cheese; beans ``Ollita,'' arefried red bean and sour cream casserole; and baby pork ribs. All areavailable a la carte as well.

Corn tortilla soup ($3.50) is melty with Parmesan cheese, rich andtomatoey, much like the Mexican version but more mildly spiced. Red bean soup($2.95) has a sweet flavor from onions and green pepper and is pleasantlyfragrant. There are no beans; this is a broth and a light soup, but you canget a soft boiled egg dropped in if you want it heartier.

Hearty, though, might not be a wise idea here. Even the salads typicallyinclude meat: The Nica salad ($6.95) is a tasty mix of shredded beef, pintobeans, onions, sweet red peppers and corn over lettuce and a Caesar-styledressing with mayo, olive oil, egg yolk and mustard - plenty for a lightentree.

And consider what's next: a big slab of red meat, most likely. Given thechoice, Nicaraguans might eat beef every night, and why not? Nicaraguan beefis that good. The most popular cut is the churrasco, butterflied center-cuttenderloin. Here, they have it in three sizes, ranging from the ``baby'' (8ounces, $14.95) on up to the ``Big Daddy'' (16 ounces, $23.95), served with asauce tree including chimichurri, the verdant marinade of parsley, garlic andolive oil; a red one of tomato and onion and a spicy one of pickled onion andpeppers. Our ``baby'' churrasco was plenty big, tender and cooked to order, abit oily but with a robust, beefy flavor.

The Sizzling Steak ($12.95) arrives, not surprisingly, sizzling on a hotplatter, where it finishes cooking in front of you. This is anotherbutterflied tenderloin, and it has a firmer texture than the churrasco, withmuch less oil.

Beyond beef, there's pork tenderloin, chicken churrasco, various shrimpdishes and surf and turf. It's traditional in Nicaragua that if you go to thebeach, you eat a dish called Tipitapa, a whole, fresh tilapia dipped in herbedcornmeal and flash-fried ($14.95). Much like the Thai whole-fried snapper, theflesh comes out greaseless, hot and wonderfully moist. Unlike the Thaisnapper, this is a huge fish, with great shanks of meat flaking off, a nearlyunfinishable portion.

Part of the fanfare at El Novillo is a phalanx of servers walking aroundwith great platters of gallo pinto (red beans and rice), fried plantains,plantain chips and white rice. You can have whichever of these you like withyour entree. The gallo pinto are particularly inviting, the rice cookedseparately and then combined in the frying pan with the beans, chopped onion,garlic and oil.

Should you have room left, there's always homemade tres leches, thetraditional white cake-and-cream dessert ($3.50), as well as pio quinto($3.50), a custard cake with rum. You likely won't. But the coffee is strongand good.