America: A Prodigy of Stereotypes

“You have no idea how terrible my mom’s dinners are, they’re absolutely horrible,” Stephanie said, gesturing wildly.

“Liqun, do you know why my father wanted your cola chicken wings recipe? It has a lot to do with my mother’s cooking skills.”

Chapter 177 It's MSG, I put MSG in!

Li Qun walked into the Asian supermarket in Chinatown, intending to buy some things he would take to Stephanie's house on Saturday.

Li Qun grabbed a shopping basket at the supermarket entrance, walked to the condiment section, picked up a bag of MSG, and put it in the basket. In the specialty products section, Li Qun also grabbed a bag of dried shiitake mushrooms, a bag of dried shrimp, and a bag of dried kelp.

Everything I bought was related to umami flavor.

Stephanie complained that her mother's white food was not good, so Liqun decided to teach Stephanie some cooking tips that were essentially cheating.

Learning to use MSG, the first industrially produced flavor enhancer in human history, should be an essential skill for beginners in modern home cooking.

After buying the items on the plan, Liqun browsed the supermarket and bought some unplanned braised ingredients and beef shank.

Actually, the food truck plan doesn't necessarily have to sell steamed buns. Selling dumplings, fried dumplings, or potstickers would also be great. It's just that Li Qun was craving steamed buns.

……

On Saturday morning, Gwen drove to Chinatown, with Stephanie in the passenger seat. The car stopped in front of the Yellow Crane Tower Chinese restaurant, and Stephanie leaned out of the window to greet Li Qun.

“Gwen, Stephanie, would you like to bring a roast duck?” Li Qun asked.

"Aren't we going to make steamed buns today?" Stephanie asked Liqun.

"We can't just eat steamed buns all the time, can we?" Li Qun said with a smile.

“Take them with you! We still need to pick up Peter!” Gwen shouted to Liqun.

Upon hearing Gwen's shout, Li Qun ran to a delicatessen a hundred meters away to buy roast duck.

After buying the roast duck, Li Qun handed the takeaway roast duck to Stephanie to hold, and went back to the store to get the other things he had prepared in advance and got into the car.

"Looks like we'll get more than just roast duck and steamed buns today," Gwen said, glancing at Li Qun in the rearview mirror.

“I also made braised beef, and I braised it all night,” Li Qun said.

Gwen started the car and drove toward Peter's house.

"Would you like to listen to some music?" Gwen asked.

"Let it go." Li Qun knew Gwen was asking him.

"I let it go."

A classic Mandarin song started playing from the van's stereo, and Li Qun's expression turned strange.

"What a beautiful jasmine flower!"

"What a beautiful jasmine flower!"

Gwen started singing along, while Li Qun turned his head to look at the street scenes flashing past the car window.

"What's wrong? Don't you like it?" Gwen asked Li Qun.

“It’s not that I dislike it, it’s just that I’ve heard it too much,” Li Qun replied calmly to Gwen.

“I think it sounds nice, but I don’t understand the meaning,” Stephanie said.

“Right!” Gwen smiled at Stephanie.

After "Jasmine Flower" finished playing, "The Moon Represents My Heart" followed.

After picking up Peter Parker and Harry at Peter's house, Gwen's classic Chinese song playlist was still playing. Everyone in the car, except for Li Qun, was completely absorbed in the music.

“Liqun, you don’t look well,” Peter said with concern.

“These songs have been playing on repeat in my ears since I was four years old. My mother and aunt would play these songs when they had nothing to do, and they would sing along.”

“When I’m lying in bed at night, they play on a loop in my head, and it’s become my nightmare,” Li Qun explained to Peter expressionlessly.

“That’s terrible,” Harry said with a laugh.

Once we arrived at Stephanie's house, the torment of listening to classic songs finally came to an end.

Hello! Little Walter!

Hello!

Little Walter sat in his wheelchair; the fast pace of New York had forced him to change his slow, shuffling way of walking with crutches. Stephanie pushed the wheelchair, taking Little Walter, who had come out to greet them, back inside.

"A kitchen party this weekend!!"

Harry opened the large bottle of Coke and filled everyone's glass with it.

"Let's eat something first before we start!"

Li Qun opened the roast duck he had brought out, opened the container of braised beef, and casually placed the ingredients he had bought in the corner of the dining table.

Dried shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, and dried kelp piqued little Walter's curiosity; to him, these three bags of dried goods seemed like magical ingredients that would appear in Potions class.

"What is this?" Little Walter asked, pointing to the MSG in the clear packaging.

“It’s monosodium glutamate,” Li Qun replied.

"Just add a tiny bit of these mysterious chemical crystals to the pot while cooking, and the delicious flavor of the food will explode on your tongue."

"Don't exaggerate like that, okay?" Gwen said, speechless.

“I heard a few ominous words.” Walter White came out of the study and carefully looked at the high school students in the kitchen.

“We’re talking about MSG.” Li Qun picked up a bag of white chemical food additive powder and waved it at Walter White.

It was bought at an Asian specialty supermarket. The bag of MSG that Liqun is holding doesn't have an English name on it.

Walter walked over, took the MSG, opened the package, dipped his finger in it, and tasted it.

Walter White tasted the umami and saltiness, nodded, and felt relieved.

“It really is monosodium glutamate,” Walter White laughed.

“Mr. Walter, you don’t have a prejudice against MSG, do you?” Li Qun asked.

“I don’t have Chinese food syndrome, and I’m not worried about going bald,” Walter White said with a smile as he slept, his head gleaming.

"We don't have MSG at home, but we do have this."

Walter White looked in the refrigerator and took out a packet of chicken bouillon.

“Skylar would secretly put a lot of it in when he cooked, but I never tasted it,” Walter White complained.

"MSG needs to be added at the very end, when heating is not required. Monosodium glutamate will turn into sodium pyroglutamate at 120 degrees Celsius and lose its umami flavor," Li Qun said.

“That’s a very good answer.” Walter White snapped his fingers at Li Qun.

"I heard you're making steamed buns, but will the umami flavor of MSG be preserved during the steaming process?" Walter White asked.

"So I'm still preparing these." Li Qun showed off the useful items he brought.

"A homemade umami enhancer: dried shiitake mushrooms are rich in guanylic acid, giving them a very strong umami flavor."

"Dried shrimp contains a large amount of free amino acids and nucleotides, giving it a salty and savory flavor."

“Grinding them into powder can be a good substitute for MSG,” Li Qun said.

Fresh shiitake mushrooms can also be used to make steamed buns.

"Vegetarians can eat steamed buns filled with shiitake mushrooms."

Walter White wasn't very interested in roast duck; he ate braised beef instead.

The food that Li Qun brought during his two visits to Walter's home made him feel addicted.

Walter White raised an eyebrow, staring at the star anise, cardamom, and other spices in the food container. He always suspected that Li Qun was involved in culinary malpractice, adding illegal substances to the food.

Chapter 178 Don't say such things

Eating only steamed buns was a bit too dry, so Liqun also cooked a pot of seaweed and egg drop soup.

Why not make seaweed and egg drop soup?

Since Liqun couldn't buy seaweed, he used kelp instead, and no one would criticize him for it.

“Hot food, hot soup, that’s a proper dinner,” Stephanie said.

"Don't say things like that in front of your mother," Walter reminded his daughter.

“I wish we had a kitchen party every weekend!” said Walter.

“Little Walter, do you want to come with us?” Harry asked.

"Together with what?" Walter asked.

“Let’s sell steamed buns together,” Harry said.

“I can’t be of much help,” Walter said with a smile.

“Gwen, Stephanie, and I run the food truck after school. Peter and Lillian have other things to do,” Harry said.

“What can I do?” Walter asked.

“You can help with the accounts; you’re very good at math,” Stephanie said.

"Alright, since you need someone to help with the accounts."

Harry reached out and bumped fists with Walter in his wheelchair, then turned and bumped fists with Gwen and Stephanie. Harry's smile was radiant, his eyes narrowing into slits.

"Did your experiment with steamed buns succeed?" Walter White asked, holding a small steamed bun filled with scallion and beef.

"Isn't this flavor a success?" Stephanie asked.

“We only plan to sell buns with one type of filling,” Gwen said.

"Should we sell some more drinks?" Walter White suggested.

“We only make a few cents on drinks…” Gwen said.

"We could also sell set meals of seaweed and egg drop soup with xiaolongbao (soup dumplings); people would like that," Li Qun said.

“That goes up the packaging costs,” Gwen said.

"But the cost of seaweed soup is extremely low."