Android : onCreateOptionsMenu not called when WiFi enabled on Jelly Bean

I am encountering some kind of possible race condition.

I am using an options menu created by onCreateOptionsMenu() in my activity.

This has been working fine until recently.

On ICS (4.0.4) wifi tablet this works perfectly. I get the options menu every time. onCreateOptionsMenu() is called immediately following onCreate().

On JB (4.2.2) 4g phone (software menu button) this fails whenever WiFi is active. Turn off WiFi menu shows up. Turn on WiFi no menu. After onCreate() no onCreateOptionMenu() gets called.

How can I force onCreateOptionsMenu() to get called consistently?