Chapter 3721: The Age of Mercury (4)

In the summer mornings, the sky always brightens very early. Without the disturbance of reporters, Shiller finally escaped the abnormal day-and-night-reversed routine and became healthy again. He woke up almost just as the sky was getting light.

However, he didn't wake up because of the daylight, but for an obvious reason — Pikachu was loud and clamorous downstairs again.

Shiller walked to the window, pulled it open, and smelled a strong scent of grass. It seemed that Central Park, New York was trimming the lawn, and the buzzing of lawnmowers could be heard endlessly. The swans on the lake somewhat awkwardly went ashore from the other side, driven by the keeper, and ran to the shade of the trees on the opposite side.

Central Park, New York is huge, so much so that even standing on the ninth floor, one can barely see the skyscrapers at the horizon's edge. Everywhere the eye could see was green forest, offering a countryside villa vibe right in the Manhattan Area. Shiller began to feel the high land price here made sense.

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

Traditionally, American gatherings require you to bring a dish of your own. Depending on the race and number of people attending the party, you're supposed to bring different types and quantities of dishes. Most people choose to bring their ethnic specialties; for instance, Black men bring African specialties, Latinos typically bring Mexican dishes, Chinese bring Chinese food, while White people often bring wine, drinks, or takeout.

Shiller has been here for over ten years. From his observation, Americans are particularly unskilled at cooking. There isn't any systematized cuisine: hamburgers are from Germany, pizzas from Italy, street food mainly from Mexico, rice and noodles are from Asia. If one insists on pointing out a specialty, fried chicken might barely qualify, but unfortunately, the delicious fried chicken shops are all run by Black people.

Among Shiller's friends, the relatively competent cooks are Captain America Steve and Peter. However, whether their cooking process truly counts as cooking is quite debatable.

For example, when making pizza, they can prepare fresh vegetables and meats, but they won't make the dough base themselves, having to buy frozen ones from the supermarket; when making hamburgers, they only fry the patties and add some vegetables; the hamburger buns are always bought; at best, they'd buy some vegetables and dressing to make a salad.

Generally speaking, the staple in Europe and America is bread, but the problem is Americans are not skilled at pastry work either. In China, almost everyone knows how to steam rice, and among the elders, there are some who can steam buns, or at least make dumpling skins. But finding an American who can start making bread from mixing flour is difficult; they feel utterly at a loss with flour.

Some might think Westerners all love baking, often making a small cake now and then. But the problem is their cakes are also often made with pre-mixed powders: in supermarkets, there are large sets of packaged kits where you just need to add the various ingredients into the machine as instructed, and you get a cake. Especially muffins and cupcakes, this process can hardly be called baking, as even a child's play toy is more challenging.

Someone might wonder, for people both residing in America long-term, why could Arrogant accept eating in a canteen, while Greed eventually developed a culinary skill?

This involves the difference between Gotham and New York. Although both Gotham and New York are mega-cities on the East Coast, the food in Gotham isn't as industrialized — although it's not like all ingredients are freshly picked and slaughtered, at least the beef and fish are fresh local specialties, vegetables are imported from Metropolis. The cooks may not be that remarkable, but as long as the ingredients are fresh, a slight seasoning makes it palatable.

In contrast, New York is entirely different. The food here is fully industrialized: a frozen pizza dough costs much less than the equivalent weight in fresh flour, and pre-prepared frozen fried chicken is cheaper than refrigerated chicken. As for fresh chicken? There's truly no fresh chicken here. The situation is similar for beef; if you rummage through the local supermarket's freezer section, you can basically find stock from World War II.

This also results in the fact that whether it's the S.H.I.E.L.D Canteen, or the canteen of the sanatorium Shiller currently runs, almost every dish must include some frozen products. There's no need to discuss the taste; just the texture alone is hard for people to accept. It was only after coming here that Shiller ate a pan-seared salmon with the tough texture akin to firecrackers' casing for the first time.

Just like in England, America isn't devoid of delicious food; it's just that the delicious food isn't American cuisine. Chinese and French food are quite good.

With the advent of the Infinity Energy era, pre-prepared meals and frozen food became even more prevalent because cold storage and cold chain transport almost had no cost, driving down the prices of frozen food even more.

Now, in New York, you can buy a 10-inch frozen meat pizza for about two US Dollars, enough to feed at least two adults; Five Dollars can buy you a box of pre-prepared fried chicken legs, you just need to deep fry them at home. Some discounted or not-so-fresh low-cost ingredients have brought back the era of Cents, where it's hardly possible to go hungry.

Most ordinary people aren't that affluent, so at sufficiently low prices, they don't care much about texture and taste. Even the middle class behaves this way. These frozen products sell well and are especially easy to preserve, so supermarkets prefer to stock them. In contrast, fresh organic vegetables remain pricey, hard to preserve, and aren't bought by many, leading to reduced variety and quantity in stock.

Even in the economically best-off Manhattan Area—near Central Park, New York, there are more general supermarkets around. To buy really fresh ingredients, one has to drive to distant high-end supermarkets and must go early in the day, or they might sell out.

Shiller's fridge also stocks a lot of frozen food, mostly used when too busy at work with no time, mainly frozen pizzas — cheese plus meat plus tomato sauce can't be too bad tasting. However, when he has time, he still prefers to cook by himself.

Shiller had previously participated in similar parties where you need to bring your own dish, and because he always brought something different and tasty, everyone placed high expectations on him.

Captain America's 100th birthday is quite an event, likely to have celebrations even in Washington. Therefore, Shiller naturally also needs to prepare grandly. He decided to try ingredients he had never worked with before, such as duck and goose.

In America, people mainly eat chicken, and Shiller had only ever eaten roast duck and roast goose in Chinese restaurants. He got reliable supply channels from the owner of his frequently visited Chinese restaurant. Once he finishes grocery shopping, he'll find a trustworthy middleman to get two ducks and geese to practice with.

After all, whether it's making roast duck or roast goose, it's hard to succeed on the first try. You always need to start with a couple to practice on. Once you get the hang of it, you can then prepare the food for the banquet, ensuring a better taste.

Shiller was heading downstairs when he ran into Peter and Pikachu coming up.

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

"Uh... just woke up suddenly," Peter said, rubbing his nose.

"You're still such a bad liar, Peter," Shiller shook his head and said, "Did Pikachu wake you up, wanting you to take him for a ride in the flying car?"

Peter spread his hands, showing a "I knew I couldn't hide it" expression. Pikachu nudged him with his little short hands, wagging his tail and said, "You're up earlier than usual today too, Doctor. Where are you going?"

"I'm going grocery shopping, want to come?"

Peter immediately brightened up, rubbing his hands together and said, "Is there going to be a big meal again? Can I choose the dishes?"

"I'm preparing dishes for Steve's birthday banquet. You can come with me to buy some ingredients to practice. You wouldn't want the food to turn out unsatisfactory, right?"

"True," Peter thought for a moment and said, "Even though my aunt gave me the raspberry pie recipe, I've never made it. I should buy some ingredients to try it, or it'll be troublesome if I can't make it by then."

"Let's go." Shiller jingled his car keys and said.

They went downstairs and got into the car. Since it was so early, there were few cars on the road, allowing them to swiftly drive to a high-end organic supermarket on the edge of Manhattan.

"Oh my," Peter exclaimed, "I don't know if I should say this, Doctor, but when I passed by here the other day, I wondered which fool would come to a supermarket where a single broccoli costs five dollars..."

Shiller rolled his eyes slightly and said, "Yes, I am that fool, and so are you."

"No, no, no, I would never spend a penny here," Peter declared, "If I had known we were coming to this kind of supermarket, I wouldn't have come. I'd rather go to the one my aunt usually goes to; she has a rewards card there. Last year, she even got a small cart using points..."

They chatted as they entered the supermarket. At first glance, the place was very high-end: the hall was spacious and bright, and the food was wrapped in cling film, sparkling under the soft light. The vegetable area had a slight earthy smell, and if you didn't look at the price tags, everything was wonderful.

Peter first picked up a zucchini, glanced at the price, grimaced, and put it back; then he picked up a box of raspberries, checked the price, and practically threw the box back as if he'd been electrocuted.

"Oh my God, Doctor, are you sure you want to shop here?" Peter was really puzzled, he said, "Yesterday my aunt spent 20 dollars and filled her shopping cart. The stuff she bought was enough to feed us for a week, but here you could only buy one zucchini and a few raspberries for that price."

"Alright, Peter." Shiller extended a hand and said, "I greatly admire your aunt and uncle's thriftiness, but I also have to admire your family's palates—especially since you all dine at a Manhattan upscale restaurant once a month. How do you still tolerate those frozen foods?"

"Uh, it doesn't seem that bad?" Peter seriously recalled and said, "Of course, they're not as delicious as those high-end French restaurants, and certainly not as good as yours. But every time I think about a big can of pancake mix costing only two dollars, those pancakes seem particularly tasty."

"Sure, we can afford to eat better. But now frozen foods have developed so well that they're not bad at all when heated. And as long as we regularly supplement dietary fiber and vitamins, it's relatively healthy. There's no need to eat fancy meals every time, right?"

"I consider myself a frugal person, Peter." Shiller put an arm around Peter's shoulder and said, "But I am willing to spend much more on food than you probably imagine. You don't want to know the price per pound of the goose and duck I plan to get later."

Shiller gestured, and Peter suddenly started coughing, scrunching up his facial features, clearly not understanding at all.