Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing, etiquette, culture, relationships, grooming and more.
CP: I am convinced that you are fonder of me since I renounced my vegetarian ways.
RN: Who wouldn't be? Remember, everything's better with bacon.
CP: Even a tofu scramble, right? Seriously, I still eat veggie burgers, but I may top one with some roasted turkey.
RN: I can't help but equate a Gardenburger with punishment.
CP: I feel the same way about this newfound foodie craze for organ meats and various animal-head parts, cooked medium rare. No gracias.
RN: I suspect that you would flip for the beef tongue tacos at the Chef Shack, if you didn't know you were consuming cow's tongue, or the pristine grass-fed beef tartare at Heartland, if I sold it as a chilled spread and left it at that. The lamb brain at Saffron might be a tougher sell.
CP: Impossible dream is more like it. When I tucked into a big plate of fried clams on Cape Cod this summer, it was probably good that I don't know precisely how they were derived. Everyone at the place -- Mac's Shack in Wellfleet -- was raving about the raw oysters, but I refrained from slurping any briny boogers on the half-shell. Was I in error?