The fondest memory I had as a child was when my mom took me and my siblings to the nearby creek to catch crawfish with our homemade fishing poles, or flown our homemade kites in the front yard, using them as a mean to “send messages to God.” Cost of such adventures, nearly zero, but the fun times and fond memories it created, priceless.

It’s easy sometimes to get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we forget that in the eyes of a child, it is the simple things that matter.

This is why I recently taught my son how to dangle on the outside of a shopping cart as I zoomed through a grocery store making speeding car noises. Although disapproving looks were casted from all directions from concerned parents, I couldn’t care less.  My little man was having fun and I was getting my errands done. And if, BIG if, he happens to hurt himself, it will be a free lesson to hold on tighter.

Let kids be kids.

I love Vietnamese sandwiches. You have your choice of grilled pork, chicken, meatball, ham etc on a warm baguette that’s perfectly toasted on the outside and soft and airy on the inside. Topped with a thick slice of cucumber, some pickled daikon and carrots, a few sprigs of cilantros and a few slices of fresh jalapeños, and you got yourself a piece of heaven on Earth.

I dream of the day when I have a servant  who would whip me up a different Vietnamese sandwich everyday, served on a silver platter of course, with a side of freshly squeezed sugar cane juice (Nuoc Mia) topped with a tiny pink umbrella. Until then, below is a recipe for one of many Vietnamese sandwiches, grilled pork Vietnamese sandwich, or else known as Banh Mi Thit Nuong.

To make an authentic Banh Mi, you will need the unique French baguette found in Asian stores.  Once toasted, the baguette has a thin layer of crispy crust on the outside and a hollow and soft inside for maximum stuffing. You can purchase these baguettes in any of the Asian hole-in-the-wall stores in Chinatown. They are usually found at the front, and they usually come 5 in a pack. Of course, if you cannot find an Asian store that has these baguettes, get any French baguette from your local store. Just make sure they are the soft kind.  Otherwise, you will overdo your jaw muscles when eating. Trust me. I was in pain for days.  

Pork Marinade Recipe:

• 1 1/2  lb pork shoulder or butt (sliced 1/4 inch)
  Keep in mind that fat is not only flavor, but it also helps to prevent drying out the meat when grilling. So pick a piece of meat that has a moderate amount of fat.
• 1 table spoon lemon grass (minced)
• 1 table spoon garlic powder
• 1 table spoon sugar
• 1/2 table spoon honey
• 1 tea spoon pepper
• 1 tea spoon sesame oil
• 3 table spoons oyster sauce
• 2 table spoons cooking wine

Whisk together and marinade your pork for at least two hours, the longer the better.

Spreads Recipe:

Butter

• Three egg yolks
• Olive oil
  (You can skip this part by just using mayo)
  Beat the egg yolks (use a beater) and slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
  Continue vigorously beating until the mixture gets thick.  This is the the “butter” for the baguette.  If you fear of eating raw egg yolk or if you are like me and your tiny hands can’t do the vigorous beating that is required to get the thickness going or your husband has yet to buy you one of the powerful multi-purpose beater, then just use regular mayo.

Pork/chicken liver pate

You can find these already made in stores

Pickled Diakon & Carrots Recipe:

• 1 large carrot (cut into “match stick” size)
• 1 large daikon (cut into “match stick” size)
• 3 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• Jar with lid

Mix the warm water, vinegar, sugar and salt until dissolved.  Put the daikon and carrot into the jar.  Pour the mixture over them and seal the jar with a lid.  Let it brine for at least a few hours (the longer, the better).

Toppings:

• 1 small batch of cilantro
• 2 fresh jalapeños (de-seed and cut at a diagonal)
• 1 cucumber (cut lengthwise)
• Fried egg (I love to top everything with a fried egg)

Putting It All Together

• Grill meat or put it on the broiler
• Toast your baguette; make a slit
• Spread the butter/mayo and pate
• Stuff your baguette with the desired amount of meat and toppings
• Top if off with a fried egg for more umph.

Simple as pie.  Enjoy!

For the past eight months, I’ve been trying to do a loan modification for my parent’s house through Bank of America under the “Making Home Affordable” program. Although my parents qualify, I have had absolutely no success in making any progress towards a loan modification. I have come to the conclusion that the BAC Home Retention Division is, for a lack of better words, retarded.

Reasons BAC Is Retarded:

1. Ridiculous Hold Time

Apparently, no one works in the Home Retention Division of BAC. Make  yourself a cup of coffee, paint your nails, do the laundry because you will spend an eternity just trying to get out of their looped automated system the first time you call. You will press buttons after buttons, trying to get to the right division and once you do, good luck in figuring out the correct button to speak to a rep.

2. Constant Transfers

Once you do get through to a live person and feel a sense of accomplishment, BAC slaps you in the face by providing you with reps who are completely clueless and useless. They will put you on hold and transfer your call to India, outer space, another planet, or possibly another galaxy far far away.

3. Inaccurate Information

For the lucky few who actually get to speak to a competent rep, you will be provided with their contact information to send in your financial documents.  Sorry to inform you but that fax number and mailing address go straight into what can possibly be the only explanation…the Black Hole.

I come to this realization after their supposed 4-to-6-six week wait period. I called BAC to ask why I haven’t gotten a response after waiting for months. Their explanation: I didn’t fax in the financial documents. Oh really? Well, silly me, I must have sent it to the wrong fax number or maybe it was one of the very, very few pieces of mail that got lost in the mail. Re-faxed it and …again…was told that no financial documents were received. Don’t fret just yet because BAC will kindly offer you a different mailing address and different fax number. Don’t even bother questioning why the new fax number and mailing address are different than what you were provided originally. Save that energy to try to go through their list of fax numbers and mailing addresses to see which ones actually go to them and which ones go to the Black Hole.

4. Reps Suffer from Amnesia

By some miracle of God, you made your way to the last round and got your approval status. The last step is to wait for a package in the mail and sign the paperwork. Piece of cake, right? You made it through the tough rounds and rest should be no big deal, right? Dead wrong! The package will never come. You get on the phone; tell them about your ordeal and how you have waited for months and still have not received your package that they said they FedExed. Their response? They have no idea what you are talking about. They have no idea why you are calling them. They have no tracking log of your millions of phone calls to them. They will try to calm you down and gently coax you in starting the whole process all over again.

Yeah, this is the point where I decided if I had a 747, I would fly my plane into the BAC Headquarters…

Interest rates are at their all time lows, and it’s unfortunate that people can’t take advantage of that. Why? The whole subprime mess caused by banks have drastically reduced home values. Reduced home values have raised the loan-to-value ratio way over 105%. Who gets punished? The good homeowners who are looking to refinance.

Let me back up. Here’s my understanding of this whole subprime mess and correct me if I am wrong. The whole subprime mess was started by banks. They lent out loans to people who couldn’t afford them by enticing them with low interest rates on ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) with no money down.  Once interest rates started resetting and skyrocketing, all these people unsurprisingly couldn’t afford their mortgages and foreclosed their homes. When these foreclosures happened, buyers came in and got these foreclosed houses at dirt-cheap prices. These dirt-cheap prices caused home values of surrounding neighborhoods to also plummet, making it difficult to refinance.

There are a few criteria to refinance. You will need good credit, show that you have sustainable income and have a loan-to-value ratio that’s less than 105%. This last criterion is very frustrating. Because of the whole subprime mess caused by banks (I can’t emphasize enough that the whole subprime mess was caused by banks), most likely the loan-to-value ratio on a home exceeds 105%, especially if you purchased the home within the last 5 years.

The loan-to-value ratio is simply the value of your loan compared to the value of your house. You can’t take out a loan that is over 105% of your home value. So lets say, you want to refinance a loan of 300K. In today’s market, the value of a house is 200K. That means, you can’t take out a loan that is over 210K. Well, that doesn’t help because the loan needed is 300K.

I totally understand the need for the loan-to-value ratio to be below 105%. It is to minimize the loss in equity for the bank (yes, it’s always about the banks)  if a house potentially forecloses. However, this criterion doesn’t make sense in this market. When a good homeowner is denied to refinance in today’s low interest rates, they will look around and realize that they can dump their homes, get a newer home for a great price and best of all, lock in today’s low rates. This, in turn, increases the number of foreclosures and we are back to square one.

If I were President Obama or a bank executive, here’s what I would do. Take out the loan to value ratio criterion and give good homeowners a chance to lock in today’s low rates. This would deter them from just abandoning them homes, and keep home values of surrounding areas intact. The number of foreclosures would decrease and we can start making progress out of this mess.

It is kind of funny how the banks started the mess, and how it is also
the banks who are making it worst.

Next post: Loan modifications with Bank of America. Oh joy.

Pho is pretty much all about the beef broth. Master the beef broth and you got yourself a smashing dish. To master the broth, you need to give yourself a couple of hours. Slowly simmering the beef bones is key. After that, everything else is pretty easy.

The Broth

• 6 quarts of water
• 20 small shallots (leave intact, rinse off dirt)
• 1 large piece of ginger (unpeeled and halved lengthwise ~1/4” thick)
• 5 lbs of leg beef bones with marrow intact (marrow is where all the flavor is)
• 1 lb of brisket
• 1 package of spices in a mesh bag: 5 star anise,3 cinnamon sticks, 5 whole cloves
• 1/2 cup salt
• Golf ball size chunk of rock sugar

Preparing the Broth

Bring your water to a boil and toss in your bones and brisket. Wait until all the suds floats to the top. Empty the pot content into a strainer and rinse the bones and pot thoroughly. This will get rid of all impurities.

Bring another 6 quarts of water pot to a boil. Back in goes the bones. Add the salt and sugar.

In the meantime, put your shallots and ginger onto a baking sheet and broil on high for 5 minutes; flip and then broil for another 5 minutes. Toss the shallots and ginger into your pot.

Simmer for 3-4 hours.

At the last hour, toss in your mesh bag of pho spices.

Adjust your flavor as necessary by adding salt and sugar.

When done, remove everything from the pot: bones, mesh bag, shallots, ginger, and brisket. Toss everything except the brisket. Thinly slice the brisket. This meat will be eaten later.

Noodle

• 2 lbs fresh rice pho noodles (found in your local Asian supermarket)

Sauces & Condiments

• 1 batch of basil
• 1 batch of chopped green onions
• 1 batch of white onions (sliced thin)
• 1 lb of bean sprouts
• 2 limes (cut into wedges)
• Hoisin sauce (found in the Asian aisle of any supermarket)
• Sriracha sauce (found in the Asian aisle of any supermarket)

Meat (Optional)

• 1 lb sirloin or eye of round (get the butcher to slice thin)
• 1 lb brisket (from the broth; sliced thin)
• 1/2 lb of  tendon (cut into smaller pieces)
• 1/2 lb tripe (cut into smaller pieces)
• 1 bag of cooked beef balls (found in your local Asian supermarket)

Putting It All Together

Bring a small pot to a boil. This pot will be used for blanching the rest of the ingredients.

For each serving, take a big handful of the fresh rice noodles and blanch for 1 minute. If you are using the dried rice noodles, blanch for about 3 minutes. Place the noodles into a bowl.

In the same pot, blanch the sirloin or eye of round. As soon as the meat turns light pink, take it out and put on top of your bowl of rice noodles. You don’t want to cook it too long or else it would be too tough to eat.

In the same pot, blanch the cooked beef balls, tripe and tendon (~2 minutes). Add them on top of your bowl of rice noodles.

This pot should be emptied and cleaned after for each serving. The water will get too starchy and no one wants slimy pho.

Add the beef broth to the bowl.

Topping It Off

Top of your bowl with a bit of basil, chopped green onions, white onions, and bean sprouts.

Squeeze in a bit of lime juice, Hoisin and Sriracha sauce.

And there you have it. Enjoy!

Not too long ago, I was craving Vietnamese beef noodle soup, pho. What better way to warm myself up on these cold rainy days than a hot bowl of wonderfully delicious bowl of pho? So during lunch at work, I decided to try a new restaurant and headed to Mama’s Vietnamese Food Restaurant on 19th Street in Oakland, in between Webster and Franklin. Three words, "What the pho?!"

I should have known better than to enter a Vietnamese restaurant that was filled with everyone except your Asian folks. Since I was immediately escorted to my seat, I felt my time to escape was forfeited. I browsed through the menu and put in my order for the Pho Dac Biet, beef noodle soup with all the fixings.

The wait was short and out come my bowl of pho. I frowned as I peered down. I waved down the Vietnamese-speaking waiter as I assume he would agree with me that there was a mistake. I ordered the Pho Dac Biet I said. This can’t possibly be it…a bowl of beef noodle soup with a couple of way-too-thick-to-eat pieces of brisket? Where my rare slices of beef, tripe, and tendon? The waiter surprisingly confirmed that it was the Pho Dac Biet. Apparently he was mentally challenged so I continued on with my meal.

I didn’t get far. The soup was horribly lacking and there was no usual "fish sauce" readily on the table to band-aid up the lack of flavor. On top of that, they provided a meager amount of the traditional pho condiments, Sriracha and Hoisin sauce. Not only do I like to add these sauces into my pho, but I like to dunk my meat in them as well. I sent the waiter off to get more sauce. After 10 minutes of waiting, a significant time loss that quickly made my noodle mushier than I liked, I was brought another meager amount of sauce. Thinking my pho would turn into complete mush by the time he got more sauce, I decided to just continue with the eating part of my meal.

After a good 15 minutes trying to chew on my tough pieces of brisket, I gave up, paid for my meal and called it a day.

Lesson learned: Unless it’s a hole in the wall and have pho in their
restaurant name, I will never order pho again.

Next post: My recipe for pho

I have so much stuff on my plate. Sometimes I feel like pulling out my hair.

Not only do I have my own personal matters to take care of, but I have to deal with other people’s personal matters as well, particularly my mom’s.

For some strange reason, I am the one out of my two siblings who gets asked to take care of her personal matters. Ok, I can understand that she cannot speak English very well, and she needs help here and there, but to be constantly interrupted at home and work? That’s a bit much.

On top of that, everything is a life or death situation with her and everything needs to be taken care of right away.

When I object that I just simply do not have the time or tell her to ask my brother or sister instead, I get scolded for not being helpful or given a lame excuse that my brother and sister doesn’t know what to do. Well, you know what? Train them by making them! The same way you make me.

Wasn’t it enough that I was neglected as the middle child? Wasn’t it enough that I got picked on by my parents being the oldest daughter of a traditional Vietnamese family?

Lesson learned: Never show your parents that you are the responsible one. Act like a retard, and they will simply treat you like one.

FML.

I was browsing through the refrigerated section of Costco and found that they carry an assorted selection of pre-cut fruit. Initially, the thought of pre-cut fruit couldn’t be better. I’m always looking for ways to save time and having someone else cut up my fruit, well…there must be a God. Then I looked at the price. Yikes! Does it really warrant a close to 40% mark-up for pre-cut pineapples? No way.

How hard is it to cut up a pineapple, or most fruit for that matter? Hack off the ends, take out the core, and cut off the rinds. Plus, freshly cut fruit retains more of their nutritional values than pre-cut fruit.

Now, other pre-cut fruit is well worth it. Pomegranates. I don’t have the patience to dig out all the seeds of a pomegranate, and I will guarantee you that if I attempt to de-seed a pomegranate myself, I will stain my counter, clothes, and suffer from the emotional scar that comes with a pomegranate seed popping in my eye.

Lesson of the day? Don’t be lazy. Cut your own fruit, save money, and eat healthy. However, if a pre-cut fruit will save you a lot of time, go for it.

The stock market took a pretty big hit today, all week actually. It was down almost 2% in early morning trading. I took that opportunity to jump on some stocks. Many investors probably jumped ship but must keep in mind to buy low and sell high.

Everything else in life seems to be falling into place. Our offer was accepted for a house in Hercules. This house isn’t our first choice but given the price, I am happy. It’s a short sale so we have some time before we have to make our final decision.

We are still holding out for our first-choice house. Well, my husband is, as I’m still trying to figure out how can possibly afford our first choice on top of all of our other expenses. The offer was put in late October and we are still waiting on a response from the bank. Yep, another short sale. I hate short sales. They should really call it “long sale” instead.In any case, I am looking forward to moving and decorating. With a kid, our current house has been completely overtaken by toys. The extra room will be great.

Not everything is going well. The parents are still at each other’s throat, and I think a separation is inevitable and a definite must for their well-being. There’s nothing I can do, but to clean up the mess when all this blows up. For the time being, I have stopped visiting them. No need to expose me and my family to the negativity. I lived with it for 27 years, and 27 years is more than enough.

We thought it would be completely cute (or completely dorky) to dress up in plaid. You decide. Our first family photo for 2010. We wish everyone a great and happy 2010.

Now, some reflections. I can’t believe it’s already 2010. I remember when I was in the third grade, finding it difficult to transition from saying 1989 to 1990. Now to think we are in another new decade. It’s just amazing how time flies and how quickly we age. So I want to take this time to reflect what I have accomplished or not accomplished in 2009 and set new goals for 2010.

Things accomplished in 2009:

Quit my job and got a new job

It was one of the most difficult decisions to quit my old job of four years. After two years there, I knew I had to move on, but the comfort of the routine and the steady paychecks kept me from taking the leap for another two years. Once I finally did, it was the best decision I have ever made.

Started my online store

Yes, I finally opened my online store in mid 2009 with the help of my wonderful husband. However, I shut it down after three months because I didn’t feel confident in the merchandise I was selling and did not want to carry the operating and marketing costs. Until those are accomplished, my online store will remain offline. Was it a completely waste of time? Absolutely not. My husband and I learned so much about setting up an online store. Also, my store and all the programming that we done is still intact. Once I can secure new vendors and merchandise, it will be breeze to go live again.

Saved enough to buy a new home

We have been proactively saving to build up our “new home” fund, and are proud to say we have put in an offer for our dream home. Hopefully in 2010, we will hear word that our offer is accepted. Fingers are crossed.

Settled into the routine of a mother

I hate to admit it but motherhood did not come easy for me. The lack of sleep and everything that comes with caring for a baby hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to adapt to being patient (something I can definitely say I did not have), adjusting priorities (long gone were the days of having quiet time to watch Friends re-runs), and getting through the day on very minimal sleep. After a few rough months and a lot of help from my wonderful husband and mother-in-law, I finally got into the routine. No more complaining, just doing.

Goals for 2010:

Move into a new home
Re-launch my online store
Visit Vietnam
Invest
Get some killer abs