Riding the wind of rebirth

"We're selling food today!" Crawford said without getting angry: "Just wait and see!"

"Food? Why do I feel like it will be another disaster?" The fat policeman laughed: "I've never heard that you can cook! I'd rather trust Juan's meat rolls! At least he's Mexican!"

"My sweetheart has invited a cooking master from the mysterious East." Crawford was very proud: "I will definitely surprise you today, Austin, find us a good booth!"

"Indian food?" Austin shuddered.

"Chinese food! It is said that the dishes all come from the Forbidden City under the Great Wall!" Crawford began to brag. He didn't even know how far the Forbidden City was from the Great Wall, but he inadvertently concretized the phrase "the emperor guarding the country's gate."

"Really?" Austin leaned over and looked into the car. "Lily's back! Hi Jeffrey! Hi Louise!"

"Hi Officer Austin!" Mai Xiaomiao greeted Austin with a smile.

"My dear, you are getting more and more beautiful! Wow, is this dress of yours also from the Forbidden City?"

"No! The Forbidden City is now an exhibition hall and doesn't sell clothes." Mai Xiaomiao dressed up carefully today and wore a Chinese silk skirt that Zhou Zhi had customized for her from Master Yang: "Austin, you've gained weight again!"

"Uncle Austin is strong! Strong! My dear, you can't be led astray by old Crawford just after you come back! Is this the royal chef from China?"

"Hello, officer. My name is George." Zhou Zhi greeted Mai Xiaomiao and the fat policeman, and then said seriously, "I want to correct Crawford's mistake. The dishes we prepared are not from the Forbidden City, but from the capital of another dynasty, Bianjing City, which was more than 400 years older than the Forbidden City and a thousand years ago."

"Really?" Austin just thought Crawford was joking, but now seeing the serious look on the young man's face, he couldn't help but become suspicious.

"You are welcome to come to our booth to taste it." Zhou Zhi blinked and said, "And help us promote it."

"Mysterious Oriental delicacies from a thousand years ago." Austin patted the door of the pickup truck: "Follow me, I'll arrange the best stall for you."

After Austin left, everyone was busy setting up the stall. McGeve smiled at Zhou Zhi and said, "Elbow, you are so bold to joke that you dare to say this is a delicacy from thousands of years ago."

"It's not really a lie." Zhou Zhi said as he worked, "That era was called the Song Dynasty. The court banquets of the Song Dynasty were notoriously shabby. Although there were 17 dishes, most of them were rice, pies and buns. The rest were two soups, two stir-fried dishes, and three grilled dishes."

"The best grilled dishes are grilled lamb chops, grilled venison and bear meat, and grilled lamb intestines smeared with egg yolk. They are called grilled bones, grilled immortals, and grilled golden intestines."

"These dishes are indeed a bit ordinary." Old Crawford said with some disdain: "And the offal."

Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "The royal family of the Song Dynasty was a relatively restrained royal family. Their diet was really not as good as that of the local rich people in other cities."

"After all, what was the diet like more than a thousand years ago? What did Europe eat at that time?"

It was not until the late 11th century AD that Europeans finally figured out the three-field farming method and learned to divide the land into three roughly equal parts: fallow land, spring sowing land, and autumn and winter sowing land, making the best use of land and livestock, and finally basically solving the food crisis.

As grain production increased, farmers only had oxen after the Middle Ages, iron farm tools were widely used, more land was mined, and most importantly, the Black Death epidemic reduced the European population by a quarter, and the remaining people finally lived a good life.

“……” Although old Crawford might not know this, he decided to skip this question and not answer it.

Zhou Zhi followed the method of selling fried dough sticks and fried glutinous rice cakes in his hometown. He set up an oil pan and a piece of iron net beside the oil pan. He put the semi-finished products in and fried them again, then took them out and put them on the iron net. The heat from the oil pan could be used to keep the food hot. Everyone also divided the work. Zhou Zhi was of course responsible for the most important work of re-frying, Mai Xiaomiao was responsible for adding fried potato wedges and French fries to the bottom of the paper box, and Louise was responsible for adding shredded vegetables. These did not need to be heated. Soon, a small table was filled up. The two of them also piled them up to make a pyramid shape.

At this time, someone had already come over. McGeoff took out two chicken wings from the insulated rice cooker and placed them next to the paper box. After Zhou Zhi asked the other person what he wanted, he added two meatballs and four pieces of crispy meat and handed it back to Louise. Louise added mustard sauce and sweet and sour tomato sauce according to the customer's request.

When the customer asked how much it cost, everyone looked at each other in surprise. They had prepared everything but forgot to set the price.

"Let's charge the price of a Big Mac. Our ingredients are much cheaper than a Big Mac," Zhou Zhi suggested.

"How much is a Big Mac now?" Louise, a high-end white-collar worker, said she didn't know.

"One dollar and nine dollars," said old Crawford.

"The meat burger is $1.90, and the meat burger is $4." Mai Xiaomiao added, it seemed that her seniors had already treated her to a meal.

"Then we'll take two dollars so that we can give you change." McGeve handed the box to the customer, who took it and left with satisfaction.

“How much is a Big Mac in China?” Louise said with a smile, “Let’s take a look at the Big Mac Index.”

"I think it's about 10 or 16?" Zhou Zhi had only taken Guan Tingting there once, so he couldn't remember clearly: "But it seems that there are only chicken fillet burgers and meat patty burgers. Whole meat burgers are not sold in China. By the way, what is the Big Mac Index?"

McGeve explained: "The Big Mac Index is an informal economic index launched by The Economist. It assumes that the value of McDonald's Big Mac hamburgers should be the same all over the world, and then converts the local prices of Big Macs in different places into US dollars through the exchange rate, so as to compare the differences in purchasing power levels in different countries."

"This is the embodiment of the theory of purchasing power parity, because the purchasing power of one dollar should be the same everywhere in the world. If the price of a Big Mac in a certain place is lower than that in the United States, it means that the exchange rate of its currency against the dollar is undervalued, and vice versa."

"The current exchange rate of US dollar to RMB is 8.35, and 1.9 US dollars converted into RMB is..."

"15.86 yuan." Mai Xiaomiao, a master of mental arithmetic, gave the answer immediately.

"That means that according to the Big Mac Index algorithm, the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the RMB is normal, neither overvalued nor undervalued."

“Hahahaha…” Zhou Zhi almost couldn’t stop laughing: “This assessment is too distorted. It’s only suitable for Western countries, or in other words, only suitable for countries where Big Macs are a common meal.”

"McDonald's is almost a luxury in our country. A blue-collar worker in our country now earns only 30 US dollars a month. Many families go to McDonald's to buy a children's meal for their curious children and then watch them eat. Adults don't buy it."

"If the McDonald's Index is to be applied to the East, I think it should be replaced with an ordinary Chinese fast food. This comparison is in line with the inherent logic of the McDonald's Index, rather than using it rigidly."

"How much does a set of Chinese fast food cost in China?" Louise asked.

"Outside Shudu University, it's just a small stir-fried meat dish, plus as much rice as you want. The current price is..."

"It's only six yuan now." Mai Xiaomiao said quickly: "So according to the internal logic of the McDonald's Index, the purchasing power of the RMB in China should be three times that of the US dollar in the United States." (End of this chapter)