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Baton Rouge has three decades of Vietnamese immigrants landing in the city to thank for its ever-broadening array of exotic and exciting Asian foods.

Although our new Vietnamese neighbors may have landed in gumbo country, they thankfully have brought with them their own hearty, savory winter warmer—pho.

Pronounced “fuh,” this aromatic and flavorful soup is considered the national dish of Vietnam. Pho is satisfying, heady and a filling, one-bowl meal that can be eaten at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

A half-dozen local restaurants now serve pho, each with its own unique flavor and character. All of them are well under ten bucks a bowl. Just like gumbo, it makes for a filling and hearty meal in winter.

So what exactly is pho? The answer is as varied as the soup’s ingredients.

At its base, pho is a deeply flavored beef broth made in the old-school classic French method: beef bones are simmered for a long time, over low heat, in a bath of water that has been scented with a combination of spices like star anise, black peppercorns and onions. Once strained and skimmed, the clear beef broth becomes pho’s foundation. This scrumptious, soul-warming broth is then poured over bowls of thin rice noodles, slender cuts of raw and cooked beef (brisket, flank steak, soft tendon, meatballs, and tripe), paper-thin yellow onion slices, deep-fried French shallot slices, green onion and frilly topping of cilantro fronds.

Pho is typically served with a side basket of fresh Asian basil, mint leaves, saw-leaf herb, bean sprouts, sliced jalapenos and juicy lime wedges. Make your bowl to accommodate your own taste.

As well as the choices of beef that comprise pho along with the vegetable and herb garnishes, hot chili sauce and hoisin sauce should be dolloped over the soup to add yet another flavor dimension.

Carefully stir everything together with your chopsticks and dig—chopsticks in one hand, a ceramic soup spoon in the other. Drag a small amount of noodles on the spoon, dip the spoon into the broth, top with a piece of meat and slurp. It takes practice and is considered perfectly acceptable to splash soup everywhere.

Novices to Vietnamese cuisine can begin their culinary adventure easily by ordering pho with a lean, tender cut of beef – shards of rare beef brisket that are slightly cooked by the boiling broth to “medium” by the time the bowl reaches your table. Once you establish your pho comfort zone, add texture with some slightly fatty flank (it has a thin layer of fat, like bacon) or pieces of chewy tendon. Both these meats have huge flavor value. The more adventurous will want to order pho dac biet – soup with everything. In addition to the meats already mentioned, your order may also include tripe and homemade meatballs.

Vietnamese cuisine has become quite a national pho-nomenon and it’s a dining trend that Baton Rougeans are slurping up.