One of the best meals-in-a-bowl is the Vietnamese soup Phô. Pronounced 'fur' or 'feu', like the French word for fire, it's satisfying, simple and healthy, a Vietnamese breakfast dish that makes a great lunch for Westerners.

Scented beef broth comes in a bowl filled with rice noodles, in which thin slices of different elements of beef are cooked. Enthusiasts pick a combination of cuts from a list ranging from flank, brisket and eye of round, to soft or crunchy tendon and tripe. Raw bean sprouts, coriander, mint, chilies, Asian basil and a squeeze of fresh lime juice are added to taste, along with Hoisin Sauce and the spicy garlic-and-chili Sriracha sauce that in generous quantity turns this soup into a good hangover cure.

With the soup spoon containing a little broth held in the left hand, chopsticks in the right scoop up a mouthful of mixed ingredients, deposit them into the soup spoon, add dabs of hoisin and Sriracha hot sauce, then the spoon is conveyed to the mouth.

Marc's Duck House, Willston Shopping Center at Seven Corners is popular for good phô, as well as Vietnamese roast meats.

Phô 99 is also good, at 2065 E. University Blvd, 301 445 1431. There's Phô New Saigon close by at 1167 E. University Blvd, 301 408 4545.

Phô 75 is at 771 Hungerford Dr, Rockville, 301 309 8873, 1510 University Blvd, 301 434 7488, and 3103 Graham Rd, Falls Church, 703 204 1490.

Phô 95 is at 785-H Rockville Pike, 301 294 9391.

One of my favorites is on Wilson Blvd on the first shopping strip in the right in Arlington. I don't think much of the phô at the Del Ray Garden, an oddly country cottage-styled eatery at 4918 Del Ray Ave in Bethesda which has been tempered for American tastes. Nor of that at Nam Viet on Connecticut Ave opposite the Uptown Cinema, which doesn't have much flavor to its broth or anything else going for it. Both make it to suit what they assume Western palates want: just straight beef, few herbs, no Sriracha on the table...

The different numbers following the word Phô, I've been told, refer to the year each owner family left Vietnam - except in the case of the also good Phô 495,  7215 Commerce Street, Springfield, 703-451-9495, named for its proximity to the Beltway.

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