Miso Soup with Soba, Spinach, and Seaweed
Stock options: water
Recipe source: made it up
Serves 2 generously as a main course
Ingredients
1 bundle or two portions of soba noodles
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons Hondashi
3 tablespoons miso paste (red is nice)
2 handfuls fresh spinach (about two cups)
3 tablespoons dried Wakame (seaweed)
3 scallions, thinly sliced, separate white and green parts
1 1/2 cup cubed tofu (any tofu will do, it’s really good with a fried cutlet)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2-3 shakes Togarashi or other hot pepper flakes
Directions
Boil some water in a small pot and cook the soba noodles according to the package, usually about 5 minutes. Drain and run under cold water, set aside.
In a separate pot add 5 cups of water, Hondashi, sliced onion and bring to a boil. When the water boils, add Wakame, tofu, white parts of the scallions, spinach and cook for two minutes. Remove from heat
Create a miso “slurry.” Dip a mug into the soup to capture about 1/2 cup of broth. At the miso to the mug and stir vigorously until combined and add back to the soup.
Use your hands to place a portion of soba in each bowl and use a ladle to add the soup. Garnish with Togarashi and chopped green scallions.
The other kind of stock options:
What are RSUs?
RSUs are Restricted Stock Units. In my opinion, these are the most simple form of equity compensation. I would argue they aren’t even really stock options at all. A restricted stock unit is a form of payment a company will give to an employee in exchange for service. RSUs are usually granted as part of a compensation package at an already public company like Apple. Each RSU is a unit of stock at a (usually) publically traded company. An employee might receive a dollar value of RSUs upon starting at the company but they don’t get to collect the full value of the grant until they work at the company for a certain number of years. That obligation is called a vesting schedule.
For example, an employee could be granted $100,000 of RSUs at Apple. On the date of the grant, Apple stock is worth $100 which means that the employee was granted 1,000 shares of Apple stock. The employee doesn’t get those shares right away, let’s say a quarter of them vest at the one, two, three, and four year anniversary of employment. One year from their hire date, that employee would automatically receive 100 shares of Apple stock. Now what’s neat is that the Apple stock MAY have gone up in value. Maybe the price is now $150 a share so the employee would be psyched to then sell 100 shares at $150 per share. Don’t forget about TAXES! RSUs are treated just like regular income so the employer will instruct the brokerage firm (like ETrade or Morgan Stanley) so sell a certain number of shares to cover the tax bill.