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By CHRIS SHERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2001
Indochine
Can't get in South Tampa's fashionable Cafe B.T.? All is not lost; the demure Indochine next door offers its own sophisticated taste of Southeast Asia, with family warmth and everyday prices. Style shows in gracious prints of sampan scenes as well as refreshing contrasts of charred skewers of lemongrass beef on bright baby greens.
The menu is short and sweet -- and sour and hot and cool with the combination of peppers, nuts, mint and herbs we've come to love from these cuisines. Start with rice paper rolls or seafood-pineapple soup from Vietnam or crisply gingered salad of papaya, pork and shrimp from Thailand.
For more sustenance, there are simple rice dishes and classic pho and bun, the former to wardoff chill and the later to beat the heat. Carb-haters will love hearty salads topped with beef or blackened salmon. Finish with delicate flan or rich iced coffee.
Healthful dining is rarely so graceful and modest, yet elegance, flavor and tranquility come cheap: Nothing costs more than $8. Indochine is at 3324 Gandy Blvd. Tampa; (813) 831-3432.
-- CHRIS SHERMAN, Times food critic