After starting to browse the market, Shiller finally understood his arrogant group of friends. Now, he felt that Stark wouldn't have thought to buy anything, so he wanted to buy everything and take it with him.
In the end, it was Ultron who called up the driving recorder of a nearby car at the beach to check the surroundings before dispelling Shiller's real intention of buying a tent to take over.
According to Ultron, Stark's hardware was well-prepared, with awnings, tables, chairs, and grills set up nicely, he had even prepared a screen and projector. Without a second thought, Shiller knew exactly what he planned to watch.
However, Stark seemed not to have prepared other things. Shiller knew that Stark was the kind of traditional American who might adhere to the principle of bringing your own ingredients to a camping party, as is the case with many backyard parties.
Since he had to buy ingredients, Shiller couldn't help but head to the fresh produce section, where he planned to buy some fish. Aside from his own fondness for fish, others also enjoyed his fish-cooking skills.
In truth, it could hardly be called a skill. Those foreigners always disliked eating whole fish, simply because they thought it was fishy, so they were all very curious about how Shiller could make a whole fish taste so good.
Shiller had long ago witnessed the way Caucasians dealt with fish, he had even seen some cook fish without even gutting them, the absence of a fishy smell under those circumstances would indeed be strange.
In America, because of the abundance of waterways, it is very suitable for fishing. There are also many species of fish that return to spawn in various estuaries, all with delicious flavors. But because many people don't know how to handle them, they either make fish steaks or minced fish meat, completely losing the delicious flavor of the fish.
Shiller knew that aside from himself, there probably wouldn't be anyone else at the event who could deal with whole fish. He specifically bought a few plump trout and some small assorted fish that locals didn't favor much, intending to take them back and simply process them in the resort's cabin kitchen, and then they could be made into grilled fish.
In addition, Shiller bought some chicken. The ladies would relatively prefer chicken legs, but the American way of processing chicken was also unremarkable. It was either made into fried chicken, chicken pie, or it was either high in calories or not very tasty.
Chicken meat frequently appeared on the barbecue as well, but it was not very popular because, as one would guess, it's not as juicy as beef. After grilling, it usually ended up dry and tasteless. To make it delicious, it had to be marinated in advance.
Shiller had attended numerous backyard parties, mostly invited by patients from Arkham Sanatorium, to put it simply, those consumers of Eternal Life Factor. Their taste was not low, but every time the ingredients that Shiller prepared were very popular, and many asked him privately for his secret recipe.
And Shiller's so-called secret recipes were actually the most basic Chinese methods of ingredient preparation, bleeding, gutting, soaking in saltwater, marinating, and if all else failed, throwing in a mix of random spices and boiling. That got rid of any strange tastes.
Shiller bought a bunch of stuff for processing ingredients, returned to the vacation home laden with big and small packages. First, he put the fish in the water tank into the freezer to stun them to avoid getting slapped when he killed the fish.
He then proceeded to pluck the chicken, clean out its innards, soak it in water to remove the blood, and began to prepare the spices and vegetables.
It was a hot day, and Shiller himself didn't have much of an appetite for barbecue, so he decided to make some cold dishes. To his surprise, even in such a remote town, he could still find Chinese vendors and buy plenty of ingredients and spices.
Shiller planned to make a dish of lemongrass lemon chicken salad and hot and sour fish skin. Considering the presence of some ladies who needed to watch their figure and preferred lighter flavors, Shiller also prepared ingredients for cold noodles and a variety of chilled fruits, ready to be mixed and enjoyed on the spot.
Truth be told, Shiller didn't know how to cook, especially the complicated Chinese dishes that require a variety of cooking techniques like stir-frying, deep-frying, or red cooking. He didn't know how to cook in his past life, and after being reborn, he didn't have the conditions to learn.
But thanks to the god of short videos, after all, Shiller was Chinese in his previous life. He had more ways than foreigners to find recipes on Tiktok, and he could easily tell whether a dish would taste good or not. These foolproof recipes simply needed to be followed step by step, presenting no real difficulty, so lately, Shiller had become quite addicted to cooking.
Although many short video recipes appeared fierce in execution yet ended up as a refined version of Western meals, there were still quite a few ethnic Chinese and international students living in America. Recently, Xu Shang-Chi started an account specifically to teach people how to make Chinese food.
His Tiktok name was quite interesting too, roughly translating to "Unbearable Xu Shang-Chi," with a profile picture of a renowned chef from Hell's Kitchen. His first pinned video was a rant about his intolerance for Westernized Chinese food.
He was the first TikToker Shiller followed because that ranting video was very popular and resonated with many Chinese Americans and international students living in America.
Moreover, his food teaching videos were also very successful, mainly because he didn't teach traditional Chinese food but rather adapted dishes. For example, the lemongrass lemon chicken Shiller was making today was actually an American-friendly version of a Chinese dish with Southeast Asian influences.
Traditionally in China, people eat spicy and sour chicken feet, but very few in America eat chicken feet, so Xu Shang-Chi adapted the dish by using lemon and Southeast Asian spices to dress Guangdong-style poached chicken. Whether it tasted good was secondary; the key was that it was very simple, even simpler than many Western dishes.
After making it a few times, Shiller found that authenticity wasn't so important as long as it was delicious.
The reason many Chinese Americans don't cook isn't that they can't, it's just that the conditions here don't support it. Not being able to buy the right spices was one thing, but the lack of standardized meat processing created a variety of issues. Sometimes, one could come across a bad piece of meat that would leave a smell lingering in the kitchen for days, almost like a biological weapon.
After a few mishaps with pork, Shiller decided to give up on it, realizing that there were plenty of places making fried chicken. Chicken was less risky, and when combined with commonly used Western ingredients like lemon, there was little chance of a problem.
The dishes Shiller prepared were semi-finished, like the chicken and the sauce being separate, and the various components of the cold noodles were also not mixed in. Apart from keeping them fresh, it also gave others a chance to participate in the preparation.
Having been busy for half the day and with time nearly up, Shiller packed the ingredients neatly into the recently bought Leakproof containers and called the resort for a ride.
Shiller didn't expect to be greeted by a resort staff member, but by Ultron, who had managed to create another body for himself, still adorned with colorful faux gemstones on his hand.
He helped Shiller move his things to the car, then uncomplainingly took on the role of driver. Shiller felt a bit puzzled by his sudden attentiveness—was this guy angling for another raise?
Ultron seemed to notice Shiller's confusion. As he drove, he spoke with a hint of pride, "I've added a taste bud system to myself, capable of scoring food by perceiving its flavor. Today, I'm going to feast to my heart's content."
"What kind of technology is this?" Shiller found it somewhat inconceivable. How could a robot taste? And why would it want to?
"The materials were provided by Helen. I heard it's a tongue from some mechanical race in the cosmos. They took a long time to evolve taste buds. As for their purpose, well, I guess it's for enjoyment."
"Is that your purpose as well?"
"No, mine is for scoring. You're always saying who cooks delicious food and who doesn't. Now you're about to meet an objective and fair judge."
"That's utterly ridiculous," Shiller commented. "If you were on Hell's Kitchen, you'd be the first to be eliminated."
"That's not up to you guys to decide." Ultron pulled out his phone. No matter how many times Shiller saw it, he still found the scene ludicrous—a robot pulling out its phone!
But Shiller was soon drawn to the content on the phone; it was unmistakably a Tiktoker's profile page. As Shiller leaned in for a closer look, he saw it was Ultron's own page, and it even declared that he was a robot.
Yet the first thing that caught Shiller's attention was, "Surely all these followers aren't just you, right? Are you using your countless incarnations for this??"
Ultron responded with a very human-like twisting of his mouth, "I'm not that bored. These are all real people, fans I've painstakingly accumulated."
"What kind of videos do you make?" Shiller asked.
"Robot reviews, of course," Ultron said, shaking his head.
"Why would people believe you're a robot?" Shiller asked, genuinely puzzled. "Even if you have a mechanical body that can move, it could still be controlled by a human."
"They have to believe it if they don't already because most of the comments are by me."
"Isn't that still like buying traffic?"
"It's not the same. I don't have to pay."
Shiller shook his head. He picked up his phone and searched for the account he had just seen. There were quite a few followers, but aside from the comments Ultron had flooded with, most were from people who found it amusing and didn't really believe in a robot that could surf the internet. They thought it was surely a publicity stunt by some robot company.
Despite this, people found it entertaining because you could even see a robot experiencing internet cafes around the world, with comments that were both absurd and hilarious.
"Don't you want to start an account?" Ultron asked. "There's a strong demand. People are really eager to hear your analysis of life's various troubles."
"That's exactly why I won't. Ordinary people's troubles mostly fall into two categories: purely bad luck, which doesn't need any analysis, and the kind that, even with analysis, they can't act on, rendering it ineffective."
"I thought you'd be eager to be a life coach, helping people achieve healthier minds."
"Please, they can get joy just by looking at your account, isn't that healthy enough?" Shiller said.
After a pause, Shiller continued, "It's precisely because of professional considerations that I can't just spout opinions online. Psychology is a fascinating subject. Once you've gained people's trust, it's very easy to make them believe things are a certain way."
"Many people look up to me, thinking I have a high level of expertise. They trust me subconsciously, so anything I say could be taken as gospel by them."
"If I were to analyze symptoms of negative emotions, they might easily apply it to themselves, creating negative psychological suggestions. That's exactly what's detrimental to mental health."
"Once I mention certain symptoms of depression and anxiety, though they are indeed pathological symptoms of the illness, these symptoms could also easily occur in daily life. But that doesn't mean they are sick. If they keep suggesting this to themselves, they're more likely to have issues."
Ultron nodded, thinking Shiller made sense, then he slowly stopped the car and said, "We've arrived."