Chapter 3722 The Age of Mercury (5)

Shiller didn't try to persuade Peter, because Peter wasn't eating grudgingly, nor was he being overly frugal, but rather, American white people are really just like that. It's as though in the long industrial era, they've completely degenerated their taste buds. They're able to tell how delicious a dish is, but their tolerance for bad-tasting food is surprisingly low. This has led to the median standard of food being severely lowered, and most people's daily diet seems incredibly unappetizing to people from other continents.

They also particularly don't place much importance on meals. Both breakfast and lunch are just a few bites to get by, essentially meals to maintain vital signs, making them look completely unappetizing.

Logically speaking, Peter had been eating at Shiller's since he started high school, so his tastes should have developed. But in reality, after graduating from college, he still didn't mind gnawing on dry bread in the lab. Although he loves the big meals Shiller makes, he finds frozen food and pre-packaged meals pretty tasty too.

In contrast, Xu Shang-Chi rants about white people's food on his short video account. From the content of his account, you can see how he was overjoyed when he went to Hong Kong, and utterly despondent when returning to America. Most of his short videos while in America are in a state of spiritual haze from hunger.

Don't say that the income here is high; even if you have money, you also need time to go to a restaurant. When busy, the meals are still the unbearably awful white people meals, eaten in silence.

Shiller, at least in a previous life, studied in America and lived here for quite a long time, so he understands this. Xu Shang-Chi, a purebred Chinese who has never left the country, coming to America is equivalent to a life sentence. If he couldn't transfer back to work in Asia, it'd truly be like serving time in a big prison.

Considering the difference between these two people, Shiller can only think it's a genetic gap. White people's taste buds just don't seem as sensitive. But he also wonders: If that's the case, then how do you explain Italian and Spanish cuisine?

Shiller bought fresh asparagus, artichokes, lettuce, and olive vegetables here, along with some tomatoes to make tomato sauce, then some fresh beef and cheese, and two dozen eggs. Lastly, various kinds of plums, because he plans to make his own plum sauce for roast goose.

And Peter indeed did as he said, not spending a penny here, and at checkout, watching the numbers on the screen jump repeatedly, he got so nervous that in the end, he just turned his head away.

The food here is indeed expensive, Shiller cannot deny that, but the quality is also very good. Every kind is very fresh, even the eggs are better than elsewhere, and the beef is visibly high quality. Spending a bit of money is worth it, considering it's for his mental health.

After buying everything, Shiller realized it was too early, not yet time to meet the middleman for the goods. So Peter suggested, "Let's take a walk to the supermarket my aunt often goes to! They have some good stuff there too. Doctor, perhaps you can pick up some household items or something."

Shiller thought it over and agreed. The place he just went to was a food supermarket, with no household items like toilet paper. For items like these, he wouldn't go to a high-end supermarket to be a spendthrift; of course, the cheaper the better.

So Shiller followed the navigation Peter sent, driving to a supermarket in the Queens District. Even though it's still early, because today is the weekend, the parking lot was almost full. They spent quite a bit of time finding a parking spot.

"It's hard to park around here," Peter said. "My uncle parks in a small alley one block east, and then we walk over. That's why my aunt needs a little cart."

They walked in together. The supermarket's decor was obviously not as good as the previous one, but it was lively. Various customers, mostly families, were pushing little carts back and forth: a big kid sitting in the cart, holding a little kid, and even three generations of a family, all studying the prices around the product racks.

Peter wanted to buy ingredients for making a raspberry pie, Shiller followed him, conveniently observing the prices at this popular supermarket. After all, prices in the Queens District are much cheaper than in the Manhattan Area, and cheaper than the suburbs where Shiller originally was, making it one of the places with the lowest cost of living.

Once inside, Shiller was really opened to a new experience. There were two large rows of wall cabinets exclusively selling frozen food. Looking at these dazzling frozen foods, Shiller had to admit he might have been a bit narrow-minded before, as he discovered many of these frozen foods were actually made in China, typical Chinese dishes.

Shiller knew China was busy building high-speed trains in the air, and the speed of those aerial trains was much faster than those on the ground, almost like horizontal rockets, whizzing by. The trade volume between the two sides was also increasing every year, but he didn't expect it to spread to the food sector so quickly.

In the frozen foods section, Shiller saw sweet and sour ribs, braised sea cucumber with scallions, Hainan chicken, clay pot rice, and spicy chicken. These were obviously not American-Chinese food, and many dishes were quite cumbersome to make by oneself. Shiller couldn't resist picking up a couple of boxes to look at them, the more he looked, the more tempted he became.

These frozen Chinese meals were indeed more expensive than frozen fast foods, but since fast foods are so cheap, these frozen pre-made dishes weren't particularly expensive, at least much cheaper than at a Chinese restaurant. Some dishes aren't even available in restaurants, making Shiller crave them more.

So, when Peter returned with those baking powders and fruits and such, Shiller's cart was already piled high.

"Doctor, why did you buy so much again? Didn't you say you don't like frozen food?"

"That's two different things," Shiller shook his head, "This is Chinese cuisine, surely better than any frozen pizza."

"But the quantity is small, the price is high, and it doesn't seem to have that much energy." Peter picked up a few boxes, looked at them, and said, "Moreover, imported products don't accumulate points, it's really not a good deal."

Shiller didn't care, stacked the few boxes of frozen Chinese food neatly, and said with satisfaction, "The era bonus finally fell on me. If it's delicious, I'll recharge a stored value card..."

They went to the household goods section to buy some toilet paper, kitchen paper towels, dish sponges, and the like. Shiller observed again, these daily consumables aren't that expensive and can accumulate points, making them quite cost-effective.

While Central Park is nice, Queens District is really not bad either. Shiller thought that if the sanatorium was to move in the future, it would move to Queens District.

But one downside is that Queens District is too populous. While shopping at the supermarket, Shiller encountered many fans asking for autographs, and they dawdled until they almost missed the time Shiller had arranged with someone.

They drove to Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn Area. Shiller generally buys seasonings at the large Chinese supermarket here, and this time the boss selling geese and ducks he knew also lived here.

They drove to the vicinity, and after twisting and turning, they entered a small alley, finally stopping at the end of the alley, next to a wall piled with trash.

During the twisting and turning, Peter's expression became a bit complicated. When he saw the wall with a hole in it, he directly covered his forehead and sighed.

"Doctor, are you sure you're here to buy ingredients???" Peter looked at Shiller full of doubt and said, "Why does this look like an illicit trade???"

"In a sense, it is kind of illicit," Shiller shrugged and said, "These are geese and ducks the boss raised himself, I'm sure he doesn't have a farming license and definitely didn't pay taxes, perfectly fitting the 'illegal and not in normal market circulation' standard. And I ordered some herbs to remove the gamey taste, which definitely didn't come through normal import channels."

"I'm just amazed at this," Peter gave a thumbs up and said, "If people from other ethnicities had the ability to evade customs and the tax bureau, they'd definitely use it for drug trafficking, but the Chinese use it for food."

"Don't be silly, Peter," Shiller took out cash from his pocket and said, "Don't you know the largest money laundering organization in New York is Chinese restaurants? This is a model that even three generations of presidents couldn't move."

Shiller rolled up the cash and passed it through the hole. The other party asked a question in Cantonese, and Shiller replied in Mandarin. The other party stuffed two large black plastic bags through the hole. Shiller opened them to check, tied the bags tightly, then passed the other part of the cash through. The other party made an "OK" hand gesture through the hole, and Shiller walked away with the bags.

"I hope we don't get stopped on the way," Peter made the sign of the cross on his chest and said, "If I were the police, seeing these two black plastic bags, I'd definitely draw my gun."

"What are you thinking? I wouldn't just carry these things back like this. Come on, let's find a restaurant to handle this."

Peter felt a bit puzzled again, but Shiller, familiar with the area, led him around and then entered a Chinese restaurant.

Shiller knew the owner here, greeted him, handed over the black plastic bag, and said, "Just pluck the feathers and clean them, no need to blanch, I want to make roast goose."

The owner smiled and said a few words in dialect, then took it to the kitchen to prepare. Shiller looked at Peter and asked, "You didn't have breakfast, did you? Let's have lunch here first, and try the dishes in the evening."

Peter was already starving, staring unblinkingly at the faded menu on the wall, expertly ordering several dishes in Cantonese with an English accent.

While waiting for the poultry to be processed, Shiller tutored the Chinese owner's chubby nephew, who came to play during summer vacation, in English. Originally, it was just about simple grammar, but there was a test paper inside his textbook that Peter and Pikachu enthusiastically attempted, only to end up utterly confused.

Shiller glanced at the test paper and found it was from a bilingual international school in Shanghai, so he didn't stop them. As a result, the kid's questions left Peter, a native American, completely befuddled.

After all, Peter also attended a rather ordinary public high school back in the day, and although he's great in scientific research, English grammar is not something you can manage without specialized study. Especially since much of the knowledge of roots and suffixes comes from other languages, which is not something you can explain clearly in a short time.

Fortunately, while the man and mouse were scratching their heads, the dishes were served. Peter used eating well to disguise his embarrassment. Meanwhile, Shiller looked at his phone's group chat, which he hadn't checked all morning, to find the "Singles Forever" group had hundreds of new messages. The folks at S.H.I.E.L.D. really don't do any work at all.