Chapter 17 Ferdinand Chicken
"It was left to me by my father. I took a piece and had it inspected by someone. They said that the color is not very good, and the purity is only about 80%." Josie pointed to the gold in the box and said, "Just go to the bank to exchange the gold. In dollars, I can pay for the house."
"What? Bank? No, no, no, you can't go to the bank to exchange." Hearing what Josie said, Margot said immediately.
"Why?" Josie asked pretending not to know.
"It's not worth it. The bank's exchange price is just a way for the government to collect money. To fool ordinary people, if it is a regular transaction, according to the current market price, it will cost at least fifty dollars per ounce." Margot explained.
Although she is a wealthy daughter and not good at business operations, Margot is not the kind of idiot who doesn't know anything. She still knows some basic economic common sense.
"Then where should I change it?" Josie said.
"It's simple, leave it to me. Uncle John just needs a lot of gold. He can easily eat yours." Margot confidently took the matter to herself.
"Uncle John?" Josie was puzzled.
"The person who took over my father's jewelry company is also my father's partner. He has a good relationship with my father. After my father passed away, I sold most of the shares to him because I was not good at management. A very small portion," Margot explained.
"That's really great, but will it trouble you too much." Josie thanked.
"Don't bother, this is a matter of mutual benefit. Don't look at the price of 35 ounces of gold collected by the bank, but when it is sold to companies that need it, although the price remains the same, it actually includes various handling fees and approvals. The cost of the program is not much lower than buying it from the black market at a high price, and it is limited, so Uncle John's business has not been easy in the past few years." Margot shook her head and said.
Hearing what Margot said, Josie nodded.
He is also clear about this point.
The U.S. government is an expert in harvesting the wealth of the people and the world.
Don’t look at the fact that Roosevelt’s New Deal seemed to have saved the U.S. economy ten years ago, but at that time the government was actually heavily in debt and didn’t have much money to implement the New Deal.
But the result is that the New Deal has been implemented smoothly... The question is, where did the money come from?
The answer is to cut the leeks of the people.
The first bill of Roosevelt's New Deal, the Emergency Banking Act, devalued the dollar against gold and prohibited the export of gold.
Then forcibly ordered the public to turn in gold at a price of US$20.67/oz, and ordered the gold mine owners in the United States to sell gold to the Treasury Department at the same price.
Then, in just one year, the gold exchange rate was raised to $35 per ounce, which depreciated the U.S. dollar by 40% in disguise.
In this way, it means that the wealth in the hands of the people has shrunk by 40%.
The country is rich, but the common people are poor.
The ability to cut leeks is simply amazing.
Think about the future. The United States will depreciate the dollar at every turn, and send money to the people when something happens.
So cutting leeks is already a traditional art of the US government.
"I did you another favor, shouldn't you thank me?" After the matter was settled, Margot joked.
"That's natural, so I'm going to cook for myself to invite you to dinner." Josie smiled slightly.
"Of course, just look at it, but we have to buy some ingredients first." Josie said.
"Oh, I'm already looking forward to it." Margot said with a smile on her face.
So the two went out again, and then drove to the nearest farmers market.
In fact, there were already supermarkets in the United States in the 1940s, but supermarkets in this era basically only sold some national brand products, and there were no fresh products.
Because most of the supermarkets were built in relatively distant suburbs. In the early 1940s, refrigerators were not too popular, and conventional food lacked storage methods. Therefore, supermarkets that were relatively far away did not meet the shopping needs of residents in this era.
So buying fresh food during this period is still dominated by small retail stores, roadside stalls, or farmers’ markets like vegetable markets.
Basically, nearby farmers will sell fruits, vegetables, honey and other agricultural and sideline products from their own farms.
The two walked around the farmer's market, and Josie quickly bought some beef, a chicken, a salmon, lettuce, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, carrots and other ingredients.
He didn't intend to cook authentic Chinese food, not because he couldn't, but because he didn't have the conditions.
Because here, you can’t buy onion, ginger, garlic and other seasonings that must be used in Chinese food, and there is no soy sauce, vinegar and cooking wine. There are only Western-style seasonings such as rosemary, cinnamon, tomato sauce, and pepper.
There are peppers, after all, America is the hometown of peppers.
In addition to ingredients, kitchen utensils are also a problem.
There are no frying pans at home, only ovens, pans and grills.
So he can only prepare some half-Chinese and half-Western dishes according to local conditions.
For example, beef can be stewed with tomatoes and potatoes.
Chicken can be made with tomato sauce and starch, which is famous in the United States in the future, but the Xia people feel inexplicable General Tso’s chicken-this thing is actually used to make sweet and sour pork tenderloin, just a chicken with sweet and sour tomato taste, simple Apparently, in the 1950s, famous chefs in Benwan casually created it to deal with the then commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
Salmon is a standard Western-style grilled method. After the test, add a little lemon juice, sprinkle some salt and pepper, and serve with rosemary.
The last vegetables are shredded lettuce, carrots and mushrooms, and they are randomly fried in a pan.
As for the staple food... bread of course, two freshly baked baguettes, solve all problems.
It can only be said that Xia Guo people will definitely dislike dishes made in this way.
But it is enough to fool foreigners.
If you really want to make authentic Chinese food, you can only wait until you have time to go to Chinatown to buy seasonings and kitchen utensils.
"Wow, it's really rich. This chicken is so delicious. Is it an Austrian specialty? What's it called?" Although in Josie's eyes, this was a very manageable dinner, but it was basically a bit sour. The sweet dishes are obviously very suitable for Margot's appetite, and he can't say enough to eat them, especially the nondescript General Tso's chicken.
"Well, that's right, this is an Austrian dish called Chicken Ferdinand!" Taking a deep look at General Tso's chicken, Josie said that he would never admit that it was Chinese food.
And it is completely unreasonable for an Austrian to cook Chinese food.
So, it's an Austrian dish, Chicken Ferdinand, all right.
As for why it was called Ferdinand, it was mainly because Josie, besides the art student who failed the ranking, could think of the trigger for World War I.
So, when the whole of Austria is inexplicable, a famous Austrian dish that will become popular in the United States in the future, Chicken Ferdinand, was born.
(end of this chapter)