Mrs. Henry ate a delicious New England clam chowder at Winslow’s Tavern in Wellfleet. Mr. Henry had mussels in curry and riesling broth appetizer, which was fabulous, the best dish of the night.

Regarding chowder recipes, because he invariably cooks chowder when on vacation in a rental house, Mr. Henry always wings it, forever trying to recall M. F. K. Fisher’s ingredients from Consider the Oyster. (She uses lots of milk.) Bacon, fresh corn, onion, potatoes, whole milk (or half & half), and clams. That’s really it, except for chopped chives and a splash of spirits at the end.

You must scrub your clams and pull away their beards. The real flavor element in the broth, of course, comes from the shells, but be careful not to include the sand at the bottom of the pot.

Bill and Pat Buckley pinched lobsters? What riffraff. Lobstermen don’t drink wine, anyway. And how can lobstermen faithfully report their limit when Buckleys and like miscreants from the unlettered classes remove them illegally?

Will Mr. Henry be sampling the chowdah? I’m interested to know which recipe he finds superior.

I read that Mr. & Mrs. Buckley, when out sailing, would grab a couple of lobsters from a lobsterman’s pot and put a bottle of wine in the pot as payment. I wonder how the lobsterman felt about that.