VIET HA'S FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

TIME & MONEY

Because of a bridge in communication that both our multicultural party and the waitress couldn't quite cross, we are still unsure what, exactly, we ate for dinner at Viet Ha, a Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant in south Sacramento.

But a few missing morsels of menu knowledge weren't about to pose a roadblock in our eternal quest for ethnic foods that are as exotic as they are inexpensively flavorful. And, despite the mysterious nature of some key ingredients, we were not about to let it get in the way of full-belly enjoyment.

Viet Ha is a simple little restaurant across from Florin Mall. The decor is kitchen-tile floors, glass-covered red table clothes, Vietnamese prints, fake ferns and mirrors. The menu is where the real style is: A large selection of Vietnamese dishes that are as simple as they are splendid, and relatively inexpensive, with the bulk of dishes ranging from $4.50 to $7.95.

If you're not too well-versed in Vietnamese cuisine, do like we did: Pick whatever sounds good and take a chance. In most cases, it paid off.

The grilled shrimp on sugar cane spears with vermicelli ($6.50) is wonderful, if not exactly what we were expecting. The shrimp is ground and formed into four sausagelike patties, mildly spiced and skewered on sugar cane spears and then grilled.

Eating it is like making your own taco at the table. The dish comes with a plate of greens - butter lettuce leaves, fresh cilantro, basil, mint and bean sprouts. You take the shrimp off of the sugar cane, roll it in the lettuce leaf with everything else and the cayenne-sprinkled vermicelli and dip it in fish sauce before eating.

The kung pao shrimp ($7.95) doesn't skimp on the fat, sweet shrimp. Even if you're a kung pao connoisseur, beware: This one is loaded with crushed red pepper.

The Vietnamese crepe ($4.95) is intriguing: a large, thin orange crepe filled with shrimp and sliced pork and a mixture of vegetables and something our party agreed was a mild cheese. The crepe is fried crisp (with just traces of greasy oil) and is served omelet-style with fish sauce. An excellent meal on its own is the sweet and sour catfish soup ($6.75), pungent, tangy bursting with coriander and ginger flavors and filled with okra spears, fresh tomatoes, pineapple chunks and bean sprouts - and hearty doses of hot, crushed red peppers. The four large medallion-sized catfish steaks are tender and are served with the bones (and in one case, the gills!).

For the truly adventurous, we suggest a drink called "moderately nutritious." It's a mystery-beverage that tastes like a sweet caramel soda served in a glass with seaweed, cap mushrooms, some sort of soft white pods that looked like broken bits of popcorn. Despite the waitresses's attempts to explain what made it "moderately nutritious" or what even half of the ingredients were, we enjoyed it.

Also good - and unusual - is the plum juice, a sweet plum nectar with plum pits and pulp on the bottom of the glass and heavily salted. We could have done without the salt, but the waitress said it's better that way.

The unknown is what is and to be afraid of it is to miss out on many things in life, including some fine eats at Viet Ha.

Rating: * *1/2