TIMES for Phở

The Dining Section of The New York Times gets hip to Pho, the famous Vietnamese soup. Vietnam's answer to hunger -- morning, noon and night, year round -- is now the lunch lady's answer to cheap eats. 

"THE smell of a curried butternut squash soup wafts through the air as you walk into the dining room. At long tables of dark wood, beneath windows soaring 20 feet overhead, customers dine on vegetable ragout over polenta, spicy orange beef, Dijon-crusted chicken, cheese quesadillas, vegetarian pho —Vietnamese noodle soup — and spinach sautéed with garlic and olive oil.

If it weren't for the trays, and the fact that most diners are under 25, you'd think it was a restaurant. But this is Thorne dining hall at Bowdoin College here. As recently as 10 years ago, a typical campus dining experience was a cafeteria offering overcooked meat, canned vegetables and instant mashed potatoes.

But as palates grow more sophisticated and admissions become more competitive, many top colleges are paying attention to dining rooms as well as classrooms."