Halloween 2013 - Tara's first experience

Some words make no sense until you are of certain age. ‘Halloween’ is not one of them. It made perfect sense to me in Gatlinburg, Tennessee where I first witnessed a Halloween crowd. The whole town came dressed up in a grant scale and since then I knew what’s big about Halloween.  At least I thought I knew. But this year I found myself absorbing more Halloween at home enabling Tara’s Halloween fantasies.

This is her first Halloween season after she joined school and until now she did not know much about it.  A lot of the information came from school friends as we kept hearing statements.  “Daddy Skeletons have body parts – head, chin nose, hands legs and butt”. While we drive to school she looks at a house with carved pumpkins and says “There is an angry guy up there. Don’t say hi to him. He will get more angry”. One day she said. “I don’t want to go to a Halloween party. There is a big spider there and it’s going to bite you and then you become a spider man. “ . We knew someone scared her at school but she could not remember who it is.  It’s pointless to ask as all of them talk about Halloween all the time. While dropping Tara to schools kids stop me and ask. “You know what I am going to be for Halloween”?  I got better in guessing towards the end. Earlier in the Halloween week, her school set-up a pumpkin patch in their grounds and the preschoolers picked one. That officially kicked-off a lot of events at home and outdoors.

Her friend Jess taught me how to make a Jack O’ lantern. ” You go to a pumpkin patch, buy a pumpkin, carve a scary face and a put a light inside and it glows in the night.”  Lesson was given at a pumpkin patch in Irvine where the kids picked up pumpkin, played some games and had a pony ride. Tara wanted a Jack O’ Lantern with a smiley face but when we started carving, she changed her mind and wanted a shark face.   There is little room for spontaneity in the middle of carving a pumpkin but at the end she certified it as a shark face.  A trip to Wal-Mart pumpkin patch at night was hence saved.

Tara wanted to be a Rapunzel. Her Mommy bought a blond wig to go with her dress. The first opportunity to show off was in Quail Hill Halloween Party.  The small park next to home was filled with super heroes fighting each other and beautiful Disney princesses pretending to be in a faraway land. The parade started at the Gazebo just after a pizza dinner and it had a tail wagging tiger, walking chicken, floating duckling, witches on broom; harry potter characters and many more.   When the candy filled pinneata broke open, she threw the blonde hair to mommy and raced to fill her treat bag and brought home plenty of candies. Then she made a statement for the records. “I love Halloween Parties”.  

Tara was a Silver Mist fairy at her school party, inspired by a character in the movie Tinker Bell. She woke up in the morning without normal battles and willingly dressed up as a silver mist. When I said I will attach the fairy wings when we arrive at the school, she insisted that I attach them right away and explained. “Dad, Miss Darlene wants to see the Silver Mist with wings”. Her school was full of characters and a lot of them dressed beyond recognition.  I really wanted to stay back and take some pictures but could not avoid the 9 O’ Clock meeting.

Today is the official Halloween day. I saw a clown driving a Bentley. At office, colleagues are all minions and the SVP is Gru –inspired by the movie Despicable Me.  The divisional CEO was in costumes and there was a team competition and the winners receive party funds. The Irvine Company hosted a pumpkin carving competition at the Plaza in front of the office and whoever came in costumes received a commemorative photograph. So a lot of people turned up with costumes.  It was fun to walk outside and every time someone comes across in costumes leaves you wondering what that would be.

 

Tara was talking about ‘cook or treat’.  We tried telling her it’s ‘trick or treat’ but I guess she relates it with cooking, a favorite topic of all of us. Kids in costumes started knocking the door as early as 5:30 pm and the candy bowl was half empty in one hour. Tara wanted to do her own trick or treat so dressed up as a Silver Mist and we stepped out with a basket to collect candy. She followed the kids to every house and figured out how it works  and after every house she comes back and said " Let us got to some other house" .

There was an elder lady dressed up as a witch and dispensing candy in the front door and Tara was reluctant to enter in the beginning. The lady was nice and gave her two packs of candy so she goes " You are a nice witch" , cracking up the lady.  She then turned to me and says " Dad, she is a nice witch and I like witches". We retuned home when the bag was full .  The candy bowl we kept outside for visitors was empty  and  a few more showed up but by 9 PM everything was quite settled. Selvan and Shiji joined us at home and we  made some mulled wine  and called it a day.

Strange ways of finding a Stock

There are strange influences to buy a stock and this how Nomura Holdings, a Japanese investment bank, become my favorite.  I so far did 38 trades on this NMR symbol and also evangelized it to a few lunch time colleagues.   When Nomura picked up the Asian and International operation of failed Lehman Brothers in 2008, Wall Street called them ‘the chess club kid who desperately wanted a seat at the cool table’. Also, there was a long, well written story in New Yorker on the cultural tussles of Nomura to blend in with Wall Street high achievers, who came along with the new acquisition. The story offered a glimpse of how differently a Japanese investment bank operated and when I looked up their stock price, it was trading blow an affordable $5. 

At lunch table we discussed Nomura story and my stock market wannabe friend- he admits his wife was pressurizing him to invest in stock as she heard ‘nice’ things from other ladies- asked me whether I would consider buying Nomura. I said I probably would and next day he surprised me buying 500 shares of Nomura.   First time buyers are restless – whenever I pass by his desk that day, I see  him gazing stock charts, lunch time was filled with Nomura talk and he stops every conversation with a question – When are you buying Nomura? Just to save a friend, I bought 200 shares next day at a price 30 cents higher and an hour later realized that he had already sold his shares and booked a profit of $140. He could not wait anymore and was nervous he would lose money if he delayed it any longer.  He stayed out of stock market after this one deal saying it’s very distracting.

I started liking Nomura like the way I liked GE or Ford stock in those recession times where you buy really cheap and hold at most a week to time and then turn in for a profit. It’s that simple- buy some options if you want to complicate it a bit J. In 2011, I did three different trades that total 1000 shares of Nomura, averaging $5, but with no support at sight, it dropped to below $3 later that year. I also became inactive in Stock Market for various reasons but left only Nomura there, unsold.  Today, the stock was closed at $ 9.50 and I am thinking chicken katsu curry and sake for dinner.

The story of my experiments with Cholesterol

This month’s New Yorker featured this cartoon. Between the balding men and the ladies and the subtle things, it’s apparent how boring the topic of cholesterol is. The men of seventies, my peers, may still be interested to read on but others please enjoy the cartoon and feel free to leave the page. I don’t even wish to see you coming back reading this.

 

The very first annual checkup I did ten years ago in Bangalore tagged me as a cholesterol boarder case.  Rule says below 240 mg/dl is normal but a good number stays below 200. My reading was 220 and it lazed comfortably in a 200-240 bright yellow broad boarder. Considering the young age and bad eating habits the physician suggested more exercise and some dietary changes.  Probably I did not fully understand what dietary changes meant then. But I did increase the running and gym visits that made me hungrier for the Little Home meals. Little Home, a restaurant that served Kerala style food, was at a walking distance from where we lived in Koramangala. The food they served -predominantly beef, chicken or fried fish - was so delicious that we have decided to close our kitchen down until we are tired of the restaurant. We never got tired and also realized how tiring the occasional cooking was.  Sheena likes this note:  I was not married then and I was sharing the apartment with another boarder case who accompanied me to Little Home but never to the gym. I still was concerned about the medical report and called my older relatives to know how they were doing on Cholesterol levels. A hasty confirmation followed:  ‘it probably runs in the family’. 

Eleven lipid profiles in last 10 years, without missing a single year in between, are now tracked in a Google spreadsheet. There are time series graphs in this shared document for analytically savvy users. (Shared with family but no other users, yet).  Blood test results correlated with the life events and the lifestyle.   Horrid 2005 report is also a story of a bachelor’s one year stay in Connecticut, closer to a pizzeria, Burger King and a bar. Thanks to double whopper burgers, strawberry milkshakes, meat lover’s pizzas and long island ice teas, a twenty five handsome pounds were added to an already ‘healthy’ body.   The doctor suggested medication that I refused with a promise. On my return to India, I reduced the weight and brought the numbers back to the comfortable family boarder levels. Year 2007 was probably the best as cooked meals, rigorous swimming and running in Des Moines summers reduced the body weight to 175 pounds and the total cholesterol fell just below the 200 mark. However, that also significantly reduced the so called good cholesterol (HDL) and the bad good ratio (yes, heart attack odds) stayed above five, unfavorably.  

Relocation to California in 2010 offered a lot more opportunity for Asian food and outdoor activities. Miles of running and a lot of seafood and vegetables were happily added to the everyday routine.   However, body weight and cholesterol levels nudged a few points every year, soon crossing the comfort levels.  The event that tipped the scales was a three weeks, cross country road trip we did to the East Coast by the end of 2012.  We let ourselves loose on food, fearing we never see them again. Mexican cuisine in Santa Fe, steak houses in Texas, Corky’s BBQ in Memphis, Philly cheese steaks in Philadelphia and New England clam chowder in Boston- you get the picture.  Though not worth the mention, there were plenty of meals in between with fried, BBQed, sandwiched, topped pickled or scrambled meats.  I always loved the way my body responds to a rash eating season.  On our return, the body weight was eight pounds higher at 188 and the total cholesterol trekked to 242. Two points above the boarder, this number is now in a creepy zone, like a sub 600 FICO in a banker’s lexes.

The following weekend was busy streaming Netflix documentaries looking for a secret sauce to reduce cholesterol. There were quite a few to cover on healthy eating, fast food, obesity, dieting, alternate medicines, Yoga, Ayurveda, vegetarianism and none of them seem to change our understanding about the good food and health in general.  However, there was this documentary ‘Fork over Knives’ that quite convincingly suggests that a plant based diet could reverse many of the abnormalities caused by lifestyle and eating habits.  It’s not hard for an Indian to be vegetarian, but plant based diet demanded that dairy products are also in check.  No big deal, we thought, so have decided to be vegetarians for next three months. This meant we ate no fish, meat and eggs and avoided diary as much as possible.

We had issues with plant based diet advised and practiced in the western world as it goes to the extreme of juicing vegetables and consuming them raw. This is far from our idea of enjoying life in a spicy uncertain world where we count one day at a time. Besides, when I look at a bowl of crisp green salad, my microscopic vision shows me salmonella lurking beneath the ranch dressing. It was a thanksgiving time for our vegetarian Indian friends as we called them for the recipes of the stuffs we remembered relishing at their place. Dozens of curries using pulses (legumes) of different colors and shapes – brown, green and white chickpeas and grams, kidney beans, lentils-often combined with green leaves of mustard, spinach or fenugreek-were recreated in our kitchen.  There is something addictive about these tasty beans and Sheena started experimenting these recipes with our favorite leaves -Yu Choy, Collard Greens, Ong Choy, Buck Choy and Amaranth - with excellent results.   Life as a vegetarian is even better until you step out of home.   I found it’s tiring to get a healthy vegetarian food for lunch at office and also when you travel.  Indian food as it is served in the U.S restaurants is heavy with added oil and diary and ironically presents as a healthy vegetarian choice.  Pastas, pizzas, garden burgers, burritos and cheese quesadillas comfortably fit into the same cohort as greasy Indian food.    At evenings, Guacamole made from California avocados and boiled peanuts with mustard and cilantro garnish become my favorite snacks. Three months passed quite quickly and at the end I weighed 170 pounds. An eighteen pounds reduction from where I started.  We also realized that we ate a lot less quantity than we were used to.

The three months experiment was controlled for a plant based diet.  I reduced my running to once a week, six miles or less.  Heavy exercise for weight reduction is overrated as even a ten miles run will burn only 1,000 calorie, less than a big Mac burger.  We also did thirty minutes basic Yoga, four days a week, and it was not the demanding kind we normally see on YouTube.   We gave the tests by end of March and I heard nothing back in three weeks. Lab Corp, the laboratory, sent the results to WebMD because my employer’s wellness managing company, Summit Health, directed them to do so. Healthcare here is not very complex and I just had to call four different organizations to trace the results and every time, in despair, I told them about the plant based diet. On fourth week the report was uploaded to WebMD and I saw the total cholesterol dropped 50 points to below 200, the green happy zone. The bad to good cholesterol ratio also dropped to below five, first time in last 10 years. 

The whole story seems to justify the plant based diet.  But I have also made a few other observations. I strongly believe it’s the quantity you eat is the major culprit. In my case, total cholesterol levels correlated with body weight every time and this was true even when I was on a predominantly meat based diet (2007). A filling plant based meal generates half the calories as compared to a similar meat based meal. This makes a big difference and what your body does with excess calorie is anyone’s guess.   Individual portions in restaurants are unreasonably large for an individual and your body does not even need twenty percent of it.  It’s quite surprising that when you reduce the body weight, you are less hungry for food and more energetic all day. Reducing the body weight by eating less is a lot easier than working out hours in gym and injuring your body in the process.  Walking long distances is probably the best exercise, preferably in a trail away from smoking vehicles and other pollution.  I love to run long distances and I still do it but I don’t think it’s necessary to reduce weight.

So here is the secret sauce:  Watch what you eat, eat less and walk. Oversimplified as it sounds, but I will report back when this does not work.

Tax Credits on Mortgage Loan - A Fairy Tale

We are hooked on to CNBC and read extensively on how to make a better return on the hard earned money. We know a company matched 401k is a no brainer and also tried our hands at stocks and options trading.   You get the picture. Most of us consider ourselves as savvy when it comes to finance and savings. However, when it comes to home ownership as a way to increase the net worth, our opinions are divided.

Some do extensive spreadsheet analysis on renting vs owning a home and almost always come out with a decision that renting is better. There are a lot of details spread throughout the sheet with cost side outweighing the numerical benefits.  Interest expenses, property taxes, maintenance, furnishing and even the added cost of transportation from the new location to office and opportunity cost of down payment are all neatly figured out.  Others are skeptical about this number juggling as it understates the appreciation potential,  tax benefits and the sheer happiness of owning a home.  Also, they are inclined to believe the gurus who recommended for decades that home buying is the way to create wealth. It’s not clear the recent mortgage meltdown proved the opinion wrong as we still hear them from our blaring TV shows. My intention here is to call out just one situation that’s often missed out in this analysis paralysis.

The idea of deducting a huge sum from taxes is, without doubt, the most appealing proposition to the new home investors. Almost 70% of your mortgage payments in the first full year are interest payments and property taxes and they are tax deductible. This is a fact and I will explain in a bit why it is deceiving a statement to many.

Let us do some simple math for a $500,000, 30 yr, 4% mortgage with a 20% down payment. Assuming you are living in California, you could deduct approximately $15,000 in interest payments and about $6,000 in property taxes. A total of $21,000 is qualified as a tax deductible in the first year. Say you have earned $150,000 and that means your taxable income is now drops to 129,000 when you itemize your expenses.   Typically someone in this tax bracket would end-up paying 15% taxes so a quick estimate is that you saved at least $3,150 (15% of 21K) with your decision of buying a home. When you do the tax preperations, soon you realize that you did not save $3,150 because when you itemize, the standard deduction that was applicable to you earlier was lost.  Let us assume that you are eligible for a standard deduction of $12,000 (married filing jointly), your benefit from itemization is only $9,000 not $21,000. So this means you get a tax credit of only $1,350 not $3,150. Further, you could now itemize state tax and vehicle registration fees, say another $6000.  So that will jack up your tax credits by another $900 or a total $2250. So question is for a $190 per month benefit, will you sign-up to be a homeowner in these uncertain times?

Adds to the grievance is that size of an average  mortgage is less than $500,000 and interest rates are at historic lows making the tax credits to drop even more. So the argument “You get a tax benefit close to the property tax you pay” is simply wrong when you take in to account the standard deduction you enjoyed in the past.   Personal situation can vary as a million dollar jumbo home loan or 5% down payment or a 35% tax bracket could produce a different number but that’s not common.

Let me call this tax break a fairy tale but at the same time, let us pursue the American dream. A place of our own brings a lot into our life that a spreadsheet seldom captures.

Irvine DJ- One Stop Shop for Asian Food

Diamond Jamboree(D J) is a strip mall in Irvine but usual descriptions don’t   seem to fit this delicious hang out place of mine in Orange County.  At Jamboree-Alton Cross Street, twenty two exclusive food joints, serving extra ordinary food of the world, has slowly been evolved as my gourmet Asian kitchen,  just a couple of miles far from home.   Don’t let the upscale looks and fine décor discourage you – these exquisite restaurants are reasonable and casual and so just right for every day meals.  Of course, it’s not about the look and feel, with an abundance of food within the footage, they sure know dishing out a bad meal is helping their slow extinction. Today, I write this blog to make a claim.  I have eaten in all twenty two restaurants at least once.
 

Guppy House is a Taiwanese style restaurant with a big happy fish logo and you will see it first while entering through Alton Parkway entrance.  Then you notice a hipster crowd sipping a variety of flavored teas.  Menu does not dominate fish like the logo does. We ordered a Spicy dumpling stuffed with pork and its came in a bowl dipped in hot sauce, vinegar and crushed peanut. Dumpling in vinegar based sauce was first time for us and it turned out to be a good pick.  Every other table had one item same. Chicken popcorn- small pieces of chicken nuggets flavored with pepper, garlic and many other spices.  Youngsters seem to relish them but we had our beef noodle soup to finish.

 Just opposite to Guppy’s is Ajisen Ramen and make sure you order a beef enoki roll , tiny enoki mushrooms wrapped in  thinly sliced  marinated beef and lightly pan fried  with a sesame seed garnish , as a starter. Their Ramen- noodle soup has a white broth and is made from slow cooking of tender pork ribs.  I liked the spicy beef ramen better than their signature pork one. Then there is an instantly pleasing slightly sweet pumpkin-tapioca desert to top up the soft noodle heap inside.

Next door is a Thai Bristo called Papaya and in fact their green Papaya salad is quite a treat for veggie lovers.  Beef basil and Pad See Ew are competent and the sticky rice with sliced mango on the side is an anytime desert. The Korean restaurant BCD Tofu’s name comes from Buk Chang Dong , a Korean city where the owner was trained in cooking and it’s now a 16 location strong  limited chain.  This is the place to go for when you wake up late in the night craving protein. They serve 24/7. We loved the boiling red hot soon tofu soup served in a sizzling stone bowl with a variety of  side dishes (banchan)  that include fermented Korean veggies (kimchi), a fish and  a portion of galbi (grilled beef) . Make sure you crack the raw egg on the top of the boiling soup. It was late by the time we figured it out so we had to come back some other day to complete the black magic ritual. I loved the galbi and it’s a feast to the eyes to see so many vivid verities of food served on the table with inviting texture and color.

We walk past Kula Sushi most of the days but still can’t miss the well designed rolls rolling on a conveyor belt.  At $2 a plate, it’s a quick and cheap bite but do not experience a great ambience or service.  I would stick to the spicy tuna, eel or California rolls and take my sashimi adventures elsewhere. 

 Capital Seafood is the only mainland Chinese restaurant in this strip mall.  A crispy clean ambience and contemporary upscale furnishing is not really translated into the price on the menu.  Dim Sum carts will come rolling just after you are seated and the friendly ladies persuade you with a variety of steaming small portions. Persuasion is probably exaggerated as you are already stupefied and all you ask is a large pot of hot leafy green tea with the dim sums you picked.  While eating, you will notice that Chinese families, often a party of five or more, are sharing large portions of well made duck, fish, beef, crab and vegetables and they look nothing like what’s on the menu.  Our theory is that they have off the menu items that only Chinese know and so we quiz the waiting staff. To pick an entrée, a super soft filet Mignon (beef) with black pepper sauce stands out every time we eat there. They have a more spacious location in Irvine spectrum mall and offer a large selection of wines and beverages. If you are in hurry, the next door is Capital Seafood Express BBQ and Dim sum place for takeout boxes.

How about standing in a line for half an hour to buy some sweet buns?. We are talking about 85^o C, the Taiwanese bakery next to Capital Seafood.  After a couple of reluctant walk offs,  we plunged in and the lady stood next to us in the line  said she was visiting Orange County from the Bay  area and her  friend mentioned that 85^o C is a must visit place!   When you get to the door,  it opens up a new world of buns and breads  glazed or filled  with Taro, coconut, raisin, custard, sweet cream, tuna and many other things. Everything is fresh out of oven as there are so many people waiting outside for their turn.  Buy a unique Sea Salt coffee, grab a chair outside and munch the milk buns with coffee.  You don’t regret the time spent on standing in the line.  

                                                                                                                                     

 I am skipping the Yogurt land frozen yogurt and Lollicup flavored tea places to proceed straight to a Taiwanese specialty noodle place, Chef Hung Noodles.  Chef Hung is the King of Taiwanese Beef Noodle.  Inside, there is a large window to the kitchen where you could watch the chefs prepare your soup. The spicy beef shank soup had a thinner flavorful broth base and slightly thicker but nice chewable noodle that our three year old happily slurps in.  It’s not just soups, you could also find some other Taiwanese pork and vegetable dishes on the menu but everyone seems to be busy with their award winners.

Our baby has a favorite dinner place too. CoCo Ichibanya Japanese curry house where she gets her chicken cutlet and mild curry sauce.  There are so many curries to choose from and surely there is one that matches your taste bud. This is part of a large retail chain in Japan and their only store in the USA.  However, if you are after a large selection of Japanese food in a sit down, relaxed setting, just hop into spacious Tokyo Table, the corner end of the DJ mall.

Tokyo Table serves you the contemporary Tokyo City cuisine right here in Orange County. Also, they pick some of the best appreciated food from around the Asian world and blend it with traditional Japanese style to make a pleasing fusion.  Every plate in motion looks like an intricate art work with a healthy balance so even the most hungry  will wait a bit up, admiring it, before the devour begins.   Hot and cold Sake served just right and the garlic shrimp rice in a sizzling hot stone bowl was the highlight of my last visit.  Slightly high on the price point but the ambience, the quality and the service outweigh the perceived wallet damage.  And you will never complain there is not enough in the menu to choose from.

There is a super chic Shabu-Shabu place (at least the owners love to call it that way) with a very modern layout and décor where people are always busy dipping their thinly sliced marbled rib-eye steak into a boiling kelp water bowl and then make the swish-swish   sound while eating them. The name of the place - SWSH Shabu Shabu- pretty much describes this process. Balcony Grill next to this restaurant is a Taiwanese grill and bar and serves the draft beer by pitcher. While the food is just above average, their shaved snow desert is a must try.

Along the Jamboree side of the mall there are four more restaurants that bring in a little more diversity to the table. Chae Bahn Korean BBQ place, Pho Saigon Perl that serves Vietnamese, Greek Islands cuisine serves lamb flavored gyros and Kicking Crab, the latest addition to the list,  which  serves Louisiana Cajun Food.   When you are tired of noodles, rice and soups there are a couple of sandwich places to go to.  Sandwich Club serves you a quick banh mi sandwich –a Vietnamese French fusion – so you still have the option to chew flavorful marinated meat inside a hoagie.  Bon Épi Patisserie & Café is the closest you can get to for a European sandwich with freshly baked artisan bread and deli style meats. I know I rushed  not to describe them but at this point I feel eating in each of these joints is so appealing a proposition than writing about them.

Thinking about cooking these Asian delights in your kitchen? Go to HMart in the same mall to get all your Sauces, meat, fresh vegetables,seafood and even utensils.   Seafood, vegetables and fruits here are very fresh, reasonably priced and there is a wide variety to choose from.  And don’t forget to check out the bakery and Korean restaurant inside HMart!