Chapter 3673

In the summer morning, the sky always brightens very early. Without the harassment of reporters, Shiler finally got rid of the abnormal routine of day and night reversal and became healthy again. Almost as soon as the sky brightened, he woke up.

But he didn't wake up because the sky brightened, but it was obvious—Pikachu was shouting loudly downstairs again.

Shiler walked to the window, opened the window, and smelled a very rich scent of green grass. The New York Central Park outside seems to be mowing the lawn, and the buzzing of the lawnmower is endless. The swans on the lake ran ashore from the other side in a bit of a sorry state, and under the command of the breeder, ran to the shade of the trees on the opposite side.

New York Central Park is very large, even if standing on the ninth floor, you can almost not see the high-rise buildings at the end of the skyline. Everything you see is a green forest, and you can actually experience the feeling of living in a country villa in Manhattan. Shiler began to feel that it made sense for the land price here to be expensive.

Shiler walked to the other side and took down the schedule list—this was the list of things he wrote down last night to do today. The most important of which is to go shopping. Besides buying some office supplies, he also had to prepare for Steve's birthday party.

American traditional parties all require bringing a dish yourself. Depending on the race and number of people attending the party, different types and portions of dishes need to be brought. Most people will choose to bring their own ethnic specialty dishes, for example, black people bring African specialty dishes, Latinos mostly bring Mexican food, Chinese bring Chinese food, while white people bring wine, drinks, or takeout more often.

Shiler has been here for more than ten years. According to his observation, Americans are exceptionally bad at cooking. There is no systematic dish here: burgers are passed down from Germany, pizza is Italian, street snacks are mostly Mexican, and rice and noodles are Asian. If you have to say it, fried chicken can barely be considered a specialty dish, but unfortunately, the delicious fried chicken shops are all opened by black people.

Among Shiler's friends, the ones who are relatively good at cooking are Captain America Steve and Peter. But whether the process of their cooking is really cooking is also worth questioning.

For example, if they are making pizza, they can prepare fresh vegetables and meat, but they won't make the crust themselves, they can only buy frozen ones from the supermarket; if they make burgers, they only know how to fry meat patties and put some vegetables, and the burger buns are bought; otherwise, they buy some vegetables and salad dressing to mix salad.

Logically speaking, the staple food here in the West is bread, but the problem is that Americans don't know how to do white case work either. In China, basically everyone knows how to steam rice, and occasionally there will be one or two elders who know how to steam buns, at least they will know how to make dumpling skins. But if you want to find someone among Americans who can start making bread from stirring flour, it's too difficult, they are at a loss for flour.

Maybe some people will feel that Westerners like baking, and they will make a small cake or something at every turn. But the problem is that their cakes are also made of pre-mixed powder: there will be that kind of set with a large whole package in the supermarket, you only need to add various materials to the machine according to the steps, and you can get a cake. Especially muffins and cupcakes, the whole process cannot be called baking, children's food toys are harder than this.

Maybe some people want to ask, since they are all coming to the United States to live for a long time, why can Pride accept eating in the cafeteria, while Greed finally practiced a hand of cooking?

This has to be said about the difference between Cat Getan and New York. Although Cat Getan and New York are both megacities on the East Coast, Cat Getan's food is not so industrialized—although it cannot be said that all raw materials are freshly picked and killed, at least beef and fish are local fresh specialties, and vegetables are imported from Metropolis. The cook is not to say how powerful, but as long as the ingredients are fresh, it won't be unpalatable if you adjust the taste a little.

And New York is different. The food here is all industrialized: a frozen pizza crust is much cheaper than fresh flour of the same weight, and pre-made frozen fried chicken is cheaper than chilled chicken. As for fresh chicken? There is no real fresh chicken here at all. Beef is about the same, if you look carefully in the freezer of that kind of local supermarket, you can basically find inventory from the World War II era.

This led to the fact that whether it is the S. H. I. E. L. D. cafeteria or the sanitarium cafeteria that Shiler opened now, basically every dish has to have some frozen products. Needless to say the taste, just the texture is hard for people to accept. Shiler also ate pan-fried salmon with the texture of firecracker skin for the first time after coming here.

Just like the UK, the United States is not without delicacies, it's just that American food is not a delicacy. Chinese food and French food are still good.

After entering the infinite energy era, pre-made dishes and frozen ingredients are even more popular, because cold storage and cold chain transportation basically have no costs, which can suppress the price of frozen food even lower.

Now, buying a 10-inch frozen meat pizza in New York only costs about two dollars, and the portion is at least enough for two adults to eat; five dollars can buy a box of pre-made fried chicken legs, which only needs to be fried at home. Some discounted or less fresh low-price ingredients are back to the cent era, and basically, there is no possibility of not being able to afford to eat.

Most ordinary people are not that wealthy, and in the case of being cheap enough, they don't care that much about the texture and taste. Even the middle class is like this, the sales of these frozen foods are good, and they are particularly easy to preserve, so supermarkets like to stock them more. Relatively, fresh organic vegetables that are still expensive, difficult to preserve, and not many people buy, the variety and quantity of stocking will be less.

Even in the wealthiest Manhattan area—near New York Central Park, there are more mass-market supermarkets. If you want to buy that kind of very fresh ingredients, you have to drive to a high-end supermarket further away, and you must go early, if you go late, it might be sold out.

Shiler's refrigerator also hoarded a lot of frozen food, mostly to deal with it when work is busy and there is really no time, most of them are frozen pizza—cheese plus meat plus tomato sauce won't be very unpalatable anyway. However, if there is time, he will still try his best to cook by himself.

Shiler has also participated in similar parties that require bringing dishes himself, but because he brings different things every time, and the taste is quite good, everyone has high expectations for him.

Captain America's 100th birthday is a big event, and it is estimated that even Washington will hold a celebration by then. Shiler naturally has to prepare grandly. He decided to try ingredients he hadn't cooked before, such as duck and goose.

America basically only eats chicken, and Shiler has only eaten roast duck and roast goose in Chinese restaurants. He got a reliable cargo channel from the boss of the Chinese restaurant he often goes to. After he finished buying vegetables and came back, he went to find a reliable middleman to bring two ducks and geese back to practice.

After all, whether it is roast duck or roast goose, it is difficult to succeed at once, so you have to get two to practice first. After practicing almost enough, then prepare the food for the banquet, so that you can ensure the taste is better.

Shiler was walking downstairs, and met Peter and Pikachu who were going upstairs.

"Good morning, why are you two up so early?"

"Uh... suddenly woke up." Peter touched his nose and said.

"You are still so bad at lying, Peter." Shiler shook his head and said, "It was Pikachu who called you up, wanting you to drive that flying car to take him for a ride, right?"

Peter spread his hands, showing an expression of "I knew I couldn't hide it". Pikachu pushed him with his short hands, flicked his tail and said: "You also got up earlier than usual today, Doctor. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to buy vegetables, are you guys going?"

Peter immediately became happy, he rubbed his hands and said: "Is there another big meal to eat? Can I order dishes?"

"I'm preparing dishes for Steve's birthday party. You can go with me to buy some ingredients to practice. You don't want the taste to be unsatisfactory when the time comes, right?"

"That's true." Peter thought for a while and said, "Although my aunt gave me the recipe for raspberry pie, I haven't made it even once. I should buy some materials back to try, otherwise it will be troublesome if I can't make it when the time comes."

"Let's go." Shiler shook the car keys.

They went downstairs and got into the car. Because the time was too early, there were not many cars on the road, and they drove smoothly to a high-end organic supermarket on the edge of Manhattan.

"My god," Peter sighed, "I don't know if I should say it, Doctor, the other day when I passed by here, I was still thinking, which sucker would come to this kind of supermarket where a head of broccoli sells for five dollars..."

Shiler rolled his eyes slightly and said: "Yes, I am that sucker, and you are too."

"No, no, no, I will never spend a penny here." Peter said, "If I knew you were coming to this kind of supermarket, I definitely wouldn't have come. I'd rather go to the one my aunt often goes to. She even has a loyalty card there. At the end of last year, she used the points to exchange for a small cart..."

They talked while entering the supermarket. This supermarket looks high-end: the hall is wide and bright, food is wrapped in plastic wrap, shining under soft light. The vegetable area has a faint smell of soil, as long as you don't look at the price tag, everything is beautiful.

Peter first picked up a zucchini, glanced at the price next to it, grinned and put it back; then picked up a box of raspberries, glanced at the price, and threw the box back quickly as if he had been electrocuted.

"God, Doctor, are you sure you want to buy vegetables here?" Peter was really puzzled, he said, "The other day my aunt used 20 dollars to fill her cart. The things she bought were enough for us to eat for a week, but here it can only buy a zucchini and a little bit of raspberries."

"Alright, Peter." Shiler stretched out a hand and said, "I really appreciate the frugality of your uncle and aunt, but I admire your family's taste buds even more—especially after you go to a high-end French restaurant in Manhattan every month, how can you still tolerate those frozen foods?"

"Uh, doesn't seem that unpalatable, right?" Peter even recalled it seriously, and said, "Of course it's not as delicious as those high-end French restaurants, and it's even worse than what you make. But whenever I think that a large can of pancake powder only costs two dollars, I feel those pancakes are extra fragrant."

"Of course, we have the conditions to eat better. But now frozen food has developed very perfectly, and it's not unpalatable to heat it up. And as long as you supplement dietary fiber and vitamins regularly, it's still considered healthy. No need to eat big meals every meal, right?"

"I consider myself a very frugal person, Peter." Shiler reached over Peter's shoulder and said, "But the money I am willing to spend on food must be far beyond your imagination. You won't want to know how much a pound the goose and duck I want to get later cost."

Shiler made a gesture, Peter coughed violently, and then his facial features wrinkled, clearly unable to understand at all.

(End of chapter)