They say good things come in small packages, but condensing a region the size of Brazil into one restaurant is quite a feat. Little Brazil in North Beach gives you a taste of flavors from the largest country in South America. On weekends, feijoada — the national dish — is served. It's a black bean stew with fresh and dried beef, salted and fresh pork, bacon, sausage, and ribs. This meaty masterpiece is served over collard greens with orange slices and farofa. There is also excellent churrasco, but one dish that steals the show every day of the week for lunch and dinner is the Salada Little Brazil ($16.95). It has plump pieces of Brazilian sausage and jumbo shrimp in a garlic, white wine, and lemon butter sauce over mixed greens, palm hearts, tomato, and carrots. Go little in a big, Brazilian, and beefy way!

High blood pressure? Slide over to Sam Konata's North Miami spot. There, the lifelong Rastafarian will serve you a plate of spicy rainbow Swiss chard. "All you need vitamin K, and that's what you'll get," says the 58-year-old proprietor of Konata's. It's been five years since he opened this spotless vegan place serving Ital food. No, we don't mean Italian. Ital is the diet all Rastafarians keep, and it's as spicy, rich, and satisfying as any plate of oxtail. Better yet, his ever-changing lineup of $11 vegan lunches will do more than fill your belly; it'll satisfy your soul. "This is life food," Konata says, "and it's all ya really need."

The rest of the week, you can eat all the fried conch and oxtail you like. But the weekends are reserved for something special: souse. At Liberty City's powder-blue Bahamian Pot, Trudy Ellis offers souse with chicken ($6) or pork ($8). The hearty stew begins with tripe sautéed with mirepoix (a mixture of chopped onions, carrots, and celery), vinegar, and blistering-hot chilies. A pork stock is poured atop and heated to a ripping boil, turning each bit of offal into a velvety bite. Finally, the main protein is added alongside some of its juices to round out the spicy potion. If you ask nicely, maybe, just maybe, Trudy will give you one or two of her famed johnnycakes. The cornbread rounds are the perfect medium for sucking up all of that luscious sauce and cooling down the heat.

In French, the word "chez" loosely translates to "at the home of." In Little Haiti's Chez Le Bebe, the homestyle treat is the goat's head stew ($10), served in limited quantities — only weekend mornings. The crowds flood in for this one, as did the Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern. The rest of the week, you can get your griot and oxtail fix, but on days off, it's the roasted head, spicy and bubbling in a cauldron of vegetables and potatoes. Weekdays, Chez Le Bebe is a reliable spot for heaping containers of crunchy plantains and the crisp fried pork chunks called griot ($4) or oxtail ($10) in a rich gravy that doubles as an excellent sauce for the accompanying pile of rice and pigeon peas.

Readers' choice: Tap Tap

Miami Shores is not quite Paris, and the medical/office building on NE Second Avenue that houses Côte Gourmet doesn't much resemble the iconic Hausmann architecture of the City of Lights. But get beyond that and you'll discover a quaint, authentic bistro run by a French husband-and-wife team. Evelyn toils in the kitchen while Yvan tends to the front of the house. The service at times is slow, but charming touches such as red ribbons tied around the dinner napkins and a solid, well-priced wine selection make up for it. Try the soups, which rotate daily. Made from fresh vegetables, they're wonderful, satisfying, and not at all salty. Escargots ($11) are delicious, especially with fresh bread, and the smoked salmon crepe ($16.95) is a great meal when you don't want to weigh yourself down with a heavy steak. French food is supposed to be all about comfort, and at Côte Gourmet, you can experience a meal like the French do — one that's simple, well prepared, reasonably priced.

We're not sure whether Tony Soprano is still alive. After all, that last scene in The Sopranos' series finale was mighty ambiguous. But if he were to visit South Beach, he'd take his goombahs to Il Mulino. The restaurant has locations in New York, Atlantic City, and Sunny Isles Beach, to name a few, but the South Beach outpost looks like it stepped out of Italian Vogue. The dining room is all white — so much so that you think maybe you should order white wine and something without marinara. Fuhgeddaboutit! You're about to eat like a don! For starters, you'll be offered freshly baked bread with carved parmigiano — just a nibble while you peruse the menu. Pasta dishes come in full or half portions. A fettuccine with rustic lamb ragu is fragrant, spicy, and a touch gamey. Get the half, because you want room for one of the West Third Street favorites — like the fall-off-the-bone osso bucco ($58), a generous veal shank slow-roasted in a red-wine-and-porcini-mushroom sauce and served with risotto. It's hearty, yet it's like butter. Chef Artie at the fictional Vesuvio couldn't make a better dinner himself.

Perhaps you're the fortuitous progeny of no-nonsense Italians who would rather be nailed to a cross than served dried pasta. If you're not that lucky, head to Española Way. Yes, Española Way. There, Sicilian-born chef GianPaolo Ferrera plies guests with more than a half-dozen handmade pastas that could entice anyone to re-embrace gluten and carbs like two long-lost cousins. There are also lovable red-sauce classics like chicken Parmigiana ($18), pounded thin and fried up crisp. The hefty lamb shank ($29), which takes a long, slow braise in red wine before it collapses into a delicious mess, is also a fine choice. Then there's the wine. A dozen options by the glass, all for $8 or less, have been culled from all over Italy's boot. Bottles of reds and whites from France and Italy are offered for under $30. Meanwhile, the only pasta that crests the $20 mark is the ravioli filled with ricotta and Parmesan and then sprinkled with a flurry of black truffle. Otherwise, it's a wonderland of tagliatelle, cavatelli, gnocchi, and fiocchetti. They pair best with stretchy pants.

The Indian food most Americans know comes from that country's north, in a region today called the Punjab. It was the seat of British imperialism in India and thus its cuisine migrated back to the United Kingdom and eventually America. At Imlee, brothers Manoj and Paresh Bhatti offer pristine interpretations of many well-known and loved Punjabi classics. There are vegetarian favorites like dal makhani ($14.95), featuring a variety of lentils in a fragrant blend of spices and shocked with a pad of butter before being served. Paneer, a wildly popular homemade cheese, is slathered in a rich, creamy almond sauce ($15.95) or covered in a forest-green sauce made from spinach and hefty doses of garam masala, turmeric, and cumin. There are, of course, more exotic choices such as lamb do pyaza ($24.95). The thick, onion-tinged gravy offers sweet notes that pair perfectly with the meat's gaminess. There's also an escape to India's south with a Goan fish curry ($19.95) that douses firm-fleshed whitefish in a spicy, intoxicating coconut mixture.

Just because you can't go to Mykonos doesn't mean you can't go to Mykonos, in Miami that is. We're referring to the decades-old restaurant on Coral Way that serves authentic Greek fare at affordable prices. The gyros — available on a platter ($11.95) or individually ($7.95) — are the most popular items, and for good reason. Mykonos Greek Restaurant knows how to make the lamb perfectly tender and proffers some of the finest tzatziki in town. If you think tzatziki makes everything better, you're right. Other favorites include the aromatic chicken and lemon soup ($4.95) and the vegetarian moussaka ($9.95). Cap it all off with some Greek wine and baklava ($3.50). You'll forget you haven't actually left the 305.

As soon as you eye your bento box, there's a problem. Where to start? This is the only option proffered by chef Kevin Cory, so you'd better be smart. A dozen little compartments carefully hold uni, tofu — is that battera? You're dizzy, right? Take a moment to breathe. Hold on, take it slow. Think while you savor lobster and avocado. Take a sip of corn miso, then seaweed with shiso. It's all followed up by nutty rice with bamboo. Next, move to kingfish, steamed and quite light. Follow with pork jowl, a meaty little bite. Now you think you're done, and you're sad. But then sweetened rice dumplings appear with whatever fruit happens to be in season. Douse them with matcha, an earthy green tea, then pause to realize you now know what lunch should be.