Travel Talk: Bruce Peru

While still in Washington, I had heard from a local friend about the work of Bruce Peru, a remarkably effective shoestring operation. When I found that even my Lonely Planet Peru guide had a section describing the organization, I determined to go north to Trujillo to see this humble operation that has improved lives throughout Latin America. It was my last stop before returning home a few days ago.

Bruce Thornton, an American, came to Peru in 2001 after years of working on poverty programs in Europe and Latin America. He and his wife, Ana Teresa, who is from a noted Peruvian family and is known to all as Ana Tere, run Bruce Peru. They describe their mission very simply: to prepare street children to enter public schools, and by getting an education, eradicate poverty. A simple goal, but not an easy one in countries where as many as 25% of the children can’t attend school. Even the governments’ free schools cost the parents about $200 per year for uniforms, books and sundries, an impossibility for many families, and some children are even out working.

“It’s important to get them early,” Bruce said, “before they are lost to the streets. Then we have to convince the mothers that in the long run, their children’s education will help the whole family far more than the little they may be earning now as child laborers. Some of those mothers become so convinced, they themselves study, and work as our teachers.”

Bruce Peru attracts foreign volunteers. But the work can sometimes be difficult. “It means going into the barrios, the worst slums, to find the children, often with police along for safety. Volunteers who think it will be a fun-in-the-sun job soon learn otherwise. It has to do with dirt and grime and head lice.”

“And I’m not a fun, Mr. Nice Guy,” Bruce added. “I can’t be. There is too much to do. I’m in my office at 4:30 in the morning, planning, corresponding with the authorities, and attending to business.”

He and Ana Tere have a no-frills life; they live in her mother’s home. To keep expenses down, many of the “schools” are mere shanties, like the kids’ homes. When the students have enough basics to enter public school, Bruce Peru’s work is finished, and it launches a new school in another area. The longest it has kept a school open is four years, the shortest three months.

“Last year we got official recognition that our teaching brings students up to the level of government classes, as equals. Then we provide the necessary uniforms, books and aid, and they are on their way to a better life.”

Here is a video of a Bruce school in Huanchaco, Peru, and another in Quito, Ecuador.

Money is a constant problem. Contributions can be made through the Web site, bruceperu.org. If you are visiting the schools, bring extra garments with you, especially shoes and warm clothing, to leave behind.

Spotlight On: John Arundel

John Arundel, of the local family known for its publishing empire and support of all equine sports, says he definitely has printer’s ink in his veins: “My grandfather and grandmother were both journalists, and my father’s company has 15 newspapers.”

His own first publication was John’s Times, which he delivered, aged 9, along with the Washington Post, on his paper route. “I scooped the press corps on cat-in-the-tree news,” he says.

He edited both his high school and college newspapers, worked in Florida for the Miami Herald, and went into Kuwait with the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division, reporting for the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, NBC Radio and NPR. Except for a nine-year stint in finance with Citigroup, he has been in publishing ever since, reviving the Alexandria Times, which in its earlier incarnation was George Washington’s favorite newspaper.

Arundel also served as a press attaché to the late United States Ambassador to France, social doyenne Pamela Harriman.

Now he is the managing editor of a new-media outlet, LocalKicks.com, a thorough, online chronicle of everything you need to know about Alexandria’s happenings. A good editor and graceful writer, he gets to use his talent on essays, writing under the banner “Local Leaders.” In one recent essay, he reflected on his neighbor John Warner, who is retiring from the Senate after more than 30 years in government service.

In another, he spoke of Alexandria native Willard Scott. The veteran weatherman, who lives in Paris, Virginia, served as the grand marshal for Alexandria’s 38th Annual Scottish Christmas Walk Parade earlier this month.

Shopping Guide: Prince and Union, Alexandria

Caught short on your Christmas shopping? Just drive across the bridge to Alexandria’s Old Town, and your problems are soon solved in one short block.

First stop is the left-hand corner of Prince and Union streets, for the year-round Christmas Attic, which has delighted Alexandrians for 37 years. Former awestruck kids are now bringing their awestruck kids.

Have a welcoming drink of hot cider, as the shop’s little train buzzes overhead. The display of trimmings and toys is dazzling, but there is also a panoply of imaginative, non-seasonal gifts. Prices range between $2 and over $1,500 throughout the store, from stocking stuffers to Major Gifts.

The tiny mouse family shown above, clustered around a miniature Christmas-laden table, is only five inches long, and is almost a museum piece for its intricate handiwork, with a price to match. It costs a tidy $495. But shimmering, clear, lava-type Christmas candles are only $18.95, and for dog lovers, there are finely detailed small statues of over 40 different breeds, for just $10.95.

The store’s luxurious Christmas items include a tree loaded with California designer Mark Roberts’ sumptuously dressed Santas and elves. At its base is a marvelous two-foot-high, bejeweled Santa, clad in velvet and ermine, astride a white-furred polar bear, to thrill some lucky recipient; it has a tag of $400.

Upstairs, among carolers, partridges, pear trees and lords a-leaping, replicas of the Nutcracker face his Mouse King enemy, and you will find an adorable Clara, the heroine of the holiday story, complete with ruffled petticoats, for $5.95.

Half a block to the right, on Union Street, and you’re offered mulled cider at Old Town Coffee, Tea and Spice, (703) 683-0856. In addition to fancy imported cookies and candies, and what seems to be every type of coffee ever roasted, the shop has an array of well-priced gift items anyone would crave.

Amid the scented candles, tea sets, cozies, colorful kettles and tablecloths, a ceramic rolling pin, striped like a peppermint stick, caught my eye—great for rolling out chilled pastry, and guaranteed to give you a chuckle. Frank Poland, who has had the shop for 15 of its 28 years, has chosen his items well.

Upstairs, in the same building, Andrew Macdonald offers his masterful photographs. A framing shop attached to his AHM Gallery can customize them for your giftee.

Macdonald opens his newest show, “The Fresh Potomac,” featuring photographs of the upper reaches of the Potomac River, this Thursday, with a reception from 5-10 p.m.

The show runs through February 12. Twenty percent of all sales will be donated to the environmental organization Potomac Riverkeeper.

Quick Notes 12/8

“Socially Seen: Notes on life in Washington” has just been chosen by the Washington Post for its Local Blog Directory.

A source for community information, the site includes blogs in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, covering news and events in the area.

At the Table: Macchu Pisco

Pretty, chestnut blonde Melanie Asher (at right), who even as a child was intrigued by running a business, had a plan she eventually developed as her coursework project at Harvard Business School. She also had a sister, pretty, brunette Lizzie, just out of Harvard Law School. Together they are a dynamite combo, and Melanie’s plan is working just fine, thank you.

The pair, who have a Peruvian mother and spent their childhood in Peru, moved to the Washington area in the 1980s. Observing U.S. life, Melanie saw one definite lack: “There’s not enough Peruvian pisco here,” she thought, referring to the distilled grape brandy that is Peru’s national drink.

So, following the classic business principle of finding a need and filling it, she put her plan under way. She founded a brand, whimsically named Macchu Pisco, after Machu Picchu, Peru’s main tourist attraction, adding an extra “c” to Machu for luck.

Clear, diamond-bright pisco is classed as a “white liquor,” like vodka, and it shares the happy quality of being hangover-free. For over 500 years, pisco has been made from the juice of grapes grown around the Peruvian towns of Pisco and Ica, where Macchu Pisco is distilled.

“Nothing is added,” says Melanie. “It is unique because it comes directly from the grape to you.”

Macchu Pisco is a remarkably smooth drink, and her company’s superpremium pisco blend, La Diablada, is a silken delight. (Peruvians disdain the pisco made in Chile, which they consider an imitation. Produced differently, the Chilean version has caused some friction between the two countries.)

Pisco punch and pisco sours are classic ways to drink pisco, but the liquor can enhance many other drinks. You can find a Pisco Alejandro--a variation on a Brandy Alexander--at Georgetown’s Four Seasons, and at PX in Alexandria, Todd Thrasher mixes the ultimate pisco sour of fresh-squeezed lime juice and pisco, as well as other pisco quaffs he has invented.

With Melanie handling the business dealings, Lizzie the legal issues, and both of them promoting it, the young business is really taking off.

Lizzie, who now works out of New York, was recently married in Antigua, Guatemala, with a contingent of 150 international friends, industry pals and members of the D.C. party set flying in. The wedding was so spectacular, you can read about it in the current issue of Elle.

And guess what! Everyone drank Macchu Pisco.

Travel Talk: On the Route to Machu Picchu

If you arrive in Lima then fly directly up to two-mile-high Cusco, the takeoff point for Machu Picchu (photo by Jorge Sarmiento, www.peru.info), you risk having problems. Peru’s capital is at sea level. The abrupt change intensifies your chances of getting soroche, the high altitude sickness that affects many visitors to the country, despite the endless cups of curative coca tea you’ll be offered. The leaves are from the coca plant, which yields cocaine. Some travelers feel a little better after drinking the tea and may even find that it’s giving them a nice buzz. But for others, nothing helps.

I went up gradually, by land. Travel choices are to go by private car, tour or bus. I took one of the big, comfortable buses that follow each other on the country’s zigzagging roads and are the Peruvians’ main transportation. (Ormeño and Cial are especially good companies; some of the smaller lines are pretty ratty.)

My first stop was Nazca, the site of the mysterious Nazca lines, grooves in the earth with complex animal, bird and human shapes designed by the Nazca, a pre-Inca people. Maria Reiche, a German mathematician who spent her life studying these lines, thought the Nazca created them for an astronomical calendar. Others think they were part of the Nazca’s irrigation system. I saw them from an observation platform. For an even better view, take a ride on one of the small tourist planes.

Next, I traveled to Arequipa, Peru’s second-largest city. In spots the landscape is moon-mountain strange. I realized it was powdered with volcanic ash when I reached Arequipa, sparkling in the sun from the minerals in the city’s buildings. They are made from sillar, a white volcanic rock.

Lake Titicaca was my next goal, by way of Juliaca. The city of Juliaca appears strange, as if all the contractors had just dropped their tools and walked away with the houses half finished. They did: Homeowners don’t have to pay taxes until their houses are completed, so they rarely are. Of course with no tax base, Juliaca’s unpaved streets are a muddy mess, but its people are safe from the tax man!

Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, borders both Peru and Bolivia. On the Peruvian side, near the city of Puno, lie the famed floating islands of the Uros people. I spent the night on one of these manmade islands, staying with a family of three, Martín, Cecilia and their four-year-old, Maria. The islands are woven of totora, the lake’s cattail-like reeds. Martín showed me how the slender reeds are formed into a dense mass, packed together with a peat-like soil. “We use Pachamama [Mother Earth] to bind them,” he said, speaking of their earth goddess.

Strewn with dried totora, the small island was a shaky place to step, but not for the seven families who live on it. The cabin I slept in was also built of reeds, and so was the bed I spent the night on. Note that I didn’t say “slept on.” A recent downpour made it a long, soggy night, but the trout Martín caught was perfectly cooked by Cecilia, and the people on the island were sweet-natured and friendly. One told me that if a neighbor becomes difficult, they just slice off their own chunk of island, and float away.

The next day, I reached the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Colorful Cusco, bright with Inca flags, is the gateway to the valley, and to Machu Picchu. The profusion of trees and flowers in the area is astonishing, and provides a lush setting for the ultimate experience: walking through the great “lost city of the Incas” itself.

The question that always hovers over these “lost” regions is: Lost to whom? The locals always knew they were there. I heard this same point being made when I was at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. An article in today’s New York Times adds light on the ongoing controversy over Machu Picchu. Determining who was the first to “discover” it is interesting to historians, and affects the legal ownership of items that were removed from here long ago, but the eternal, magical mountain rises above all this.

Faced with the triumph of Machu Picchu--that it could be built at all--the crowd of sightseers I was with, who had been raucous and rambunctious en route, fell suddenly silent. All along the way, as we walked through the ruins, we saw evidence of the Incas’ sophisticated civilization and craftsmanship. Master stone cutters, they fit the huge building blocks together without mortar, doing it so perfectly that there’s not even enough space to slip the blade of a knife between them.

The Incas created these structures and terraces for their crops, farming on slopes so steep it seems impossible anyone could stand on them, let alone build them.

Gazing at the majestic work, I at first felt small, diminished by its mass, and then, as I stood there, I suddenly realized we are all made greater by Machu Picchu, this awe-inspiring example of what humans, with skill and determination, can accomplish--no matter the obstacles.

Travel Talk: Off to Peru

This massive, carved and terraced block of Peruvian chocolate, displayed at last year’s Opera Ball reception, led me to where I am right now. As you read this, I am between Arequipa and Puno, almost 6,000 miles from Washington.

The tower is a replica of Machu Picchu. For me, the sacred “lost city of the Incas” had long been a some-when destination, although I had never done anything about it. I said so aloud at the ball. Peruvian Ambassador Felipe Ortiz de Zevallos, who was hosting the black-tie reception, answered that Machu Picchu had been there for centuries, but there was no time like the present. He added, “Whenever you go to Peru, you will have a warm welcome.”

He was right. Even in bustling Lima, the capital city--and capitals are often impressive but impersonal--I’ve been charmed by the warmth of strangers, and these not just service personnel, with an eye out for tips.

Ever since growing up as a California beach bunny, I felt the tug of travel; I’ve covered a lot of territory since. Having two traveler husbands--sequentially--helped.

With one I traveled from the hanging gardens of Xoximilco to Picasso’s studio in Vallauris, spending almost two decades in Europe with him, crisscrossing the continent and living in five countries. A writer, he traveled hard, with a take-no-prisoners determination to see whatever there was to see, from dawn to long after dusk; I do that too.

The other was for many years an explorer, before he settled down as an editor. He had already seen most of the world anyway, so traveling with him was leisurely.

They are gone, and I travel alone now, by choice. People get tired, they need to rest, or are hungry at inopportune times, so then you miss the boat or plane or pony cart--or whatever gets you around.

I found recently, when reading the ghoulishly titled 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, that I had already seen over 300 of them. I didn’t know I had a bucket list, but Machu Picchu, voted one of the new seven wonders of the world, isn’t a bad place to start one.

At the Table: Guest Chef Barry Glassman

When Barry Glassman reaches for a ladle, everybody’s happy: Barry (at right), who loves to cook; his friends, who flock to try out his skillfully prepared dishes; and the charity that benefits from his hobby.

For Barry’s seventh annual Chef Night at Teatro Goldoni, he again devised the menu and manned the casseroles, aided by Teatro’s chef, Enzo Fargione, at left. (Enzo has been named a “chef to watch” by Esquire, which called Teatro Goldoni “D.C.’s best Italian restaurant.”)

Barry, a high-end financial consultant at Cassaday & Company, and his wife, Caren, took over the restaurant for the night, and donated the proceeds to the National Brain Tumor Society.

The dinner was stunning, opening with burrata mozzarella (a now-trendy special “buttered” version: brioche-shaped mozzarella pockets containing heavy cream melded with scraps of the cheese). Then, in succession, he presented stuffed quail risotto with artichokes, Chilean sea bass with fennel saffron broth, roasted filet of beef with gorgonzola sauce, and cocoa nib baskets filled with creamy chocolate orange truffle.

See why Barry has a following?

Capital Diary: Celebrating Marianne Means

How do you mark the retirement of a newswoman who has soldiered through nine presidential campaigns, filing three columns a week for almost 40 years? You take over the National Press Club, bring down the top brass from New York, and do a lavish buffet, all to hoist a glass to star Hearst journalist Marianne Means.

Down from Manhattan’s Hearst Tower came Frank A. Bennack, chief executive of the communications giant, with scores of newspapers and magazines, plus cable, TV, and Internet. (During a brief retirement, from which Hearst called him back, Bennack also became chairman of New York’s Lincoln Center.) He spoke, pointing out Marianne’s many accomplishments, as did George Irish, president of Hearst newspapers, also from New York, and Charles Lewis, Hearst’s Washington bureau chief.

By Marianne’s side was her husband, the syndicated columnist and essayist James J. Kilpatrick (Kilpo, who was a regular on 60 Minutes). Kilpo is known as an ultraconservative, she an ultraliberal. How does that work out? “We’ve both mellowed,” they chorus.

Seen in the crowd was longtime friend and tireless investigative reporter Kitty Kelley. She’s working on a bio of Oprah Winfrey. The book is the target of coast-to-coast rumors. “It won’t be a hatchet job,” says the doll-faced but tough-minded Kitty, whose other painstakingly researched bios have portrayed Frank Sinatra as a mobster’s pal and Nancy Reagan as a domineering woman. (Jackie O and Liz Taylor did not come off too well, either.)

Online magazine Slate has defined Kitty as the “colonoscopist to the stars,” so it’s amusing to speculate about what she and Frank Bennack might have had to say to each other at the party, because Hearst publishes O, The Oprah Magazine. Oops!

Plan Ahead: Reza and Sebastian Junger

The distinguished and intrepid Iranian photojournalist Reza Deghati, known as Reza, has covered some of the most dangerous places in the world. A warmhearted realist, he is a humanitarian who has seen it all, and has shown it to us, vividly, in the pages of the National Geographic. He will discuss his new book, Reza War + Peace, on Tuesday, December 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium, ticket information. Sharing the stage will be author Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm), who wrote the introduction.

In addition to magnificent photographs from many lands, the book gives Reza’s insights into the lives of those pictured, as he spoke with them and learned of their problems, fears, and occasional joys.

Here’s a preview from the Geographic, with a video of Reza and pictures from his book. Living in exile from Iran, he makes his home base in Paris with his French wife, Rachel.

May I be allowed a bit of parental pride here? My daughter, Donnali Fifield, worked on the translation and editing of the text, which is in French. A couple of years ago, she translated the companion book for March of the Penguins and adapted it with the American version of the film, also for the Geographic. A writer who lives in San Francisco, she’s the designer and editor of this blog. I invite you to look at her Web site, Times Two Publishing Company.

Plan Ahead: Forbidden Loves

In Forbidden Loves: Paris Between the Wars, author Patricia Daly-Lipe tells the often-steamy story of a young Washington socialite who leaves for a Paris honeymoon, concerned about the man she has just married, never suspecting what lies ahead.

Daly-Lipe’s book takes you to the Paris of that time: Lindbergh’s arrival at Le Bourget after his historic flight, the Surrealist movement, and writers such as Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and others, quoted in their actual words thanks to her painstaking research.

The tale, which has won two awards for excellence, cites the mores of that period, and the scorn awaiting those who dared to break the rules for love. The story takes many unexpected turns. But probably the greatest surprise is that the heroine is Daly-Lipe’s own mother. Daly-Lipe based this account on old family records and travels to near-forgotten sites.

Rita Mae Brown, herself a best-selling author, sums the book up best: “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all--well, yes and no. Read Forbidden Loves’ view of this age-old dilemma.”

On December 7, 2:30-4 p.m., Daly-Lipe will speak at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., contrasting the District and Paris of that time with how they are today.

The next day, December 8, at 8 p.m., she’ll be interviewed on Blog Talk Radio about another of her great passions, horses. Daly-Lipe raises thoroughbreds in Northern Virginia, racing winners at Santa Anita, Del Mar and other tracks. Both events are listed on her site, literarylady.com.

Quick Notes 11/16

“What was it like to cook for Oprah?” I asked. “She was the best boss in the world,” answered Art Smith at the opening of his restaurant Art and Soul in the new hotel Liaison (the former New Jersey Avenue Holiday Inn on the Hill). The hotel has been handsomely remodeled, but who wouldn’t look good with a $12 million face-lift? It’s a stylish gray and black, with red accents, chain mail curtains and red faux ostrich-leather banquettes in the restaurant.

Art Smith, a renowned author/chef in Chicago, is a two-time James Beard Award winner, and will oversee the restaurant with local Ryan Morgan as the executive chef. The regional cuisine has a Southern twist.

Check out the Shadow Room, an intriguing addition to the K Street bar scene. On K at 21st, it has interesting lighting, good music and high-tech action, thanks to electronic-savvy Swaptak Das, who with two college pals, Stephen Acott and Pat Khunachak, started it all.

Without leaving your seat, you can work the controls to order your drink (with variations!), get bar snacks, summon your coat, get your bill, and have your car at the door when you want it, all without having to vie for the waiter’s attention.

The bar’s concept is to give you a personal servant at your elbow, but you’re on your own for happy talk with a partner, and you have to swallow your own drinks.

At the Table: Daube for Dinner

Last week, I praised the melt-in-your-mouth daube, the glorified beef dish that was served at the National Museum of Women in the Arts Fall Benefit cabaret evening. I tracked it down to Occasions Caterers, that excellent company, whose co-founder and CEO, Mark Michael, tells me it was beef cut from short ribs. That’s a bright idea for this dish, as it is best when the meat used has a gelatinous content. This is why French housewives make sure the butcher includes a cut from the shin or shank meat along with the rest of the stew meat.

Here’s the way this dish is made in Avignon. Daube doesn’t take much work, but it does take time to marinate and 4-6 hours to cook. Don’t worry that there is no step for browning the meat; it will come out of the oven nicely browned after the long cooking.

Put 4 lbs. stew meat, cut into one-and-a-half-inch lengths, into a bowl along with 2 medium-sized carrots sliced into coins, and 2 onions, sliced, 3 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 tsp. herbes de Provence, half a bay leaf and an inch of orange rind, diced. Add one-half teaspoon salt and several grinds from the pepper mill. Add red wine to cover. Let marinate 2-3 hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a Dutch oven with either 1/4 lb. of salt pork, diced, or thick-cut bacon, with rind. Place the marinated meat on top, add a medium onion stuck with 3 cloves, pour on the marinade with the vegetables and add beef stock, from the grocer or homemade, to cover. (Optional: Lay a split-lengthwise calf’s foot, or pork trotter on top, to give extra succulence. Also optional addition: one-quarter cup cognac.) In France, the cooking is usually finished on top of a stove, but that requires several hours of careful attention, so use your stove’s oven.

Start the cooking on the stovetop, by bringing the uncovered stew just to a boil. Remove from the fire, cover, and put into the oven to bake. Check from time to time, adding more stock or water if needed. Bake for 4-5 hours or until completely tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Half an hour before the meat is done, add one-third of a pound of pitted black olives. Reduce the liquid in the pan if too thin. Daube is traditionally served with plain boiled noodles, with some of the juices from the meat poured over them.

Spotlight On: Coach Kemper

One of D.C.’s busiest women, Kathleen Kemper is a sports enthusiast and tennis mentor known to her fans and pupils (including top politicos and ambassadors) as “Coach Kemper.” Kathy runs a three-ring circus: her tennis life, her myriad activities as head of the Institute for Education, which she founded, and her role as wife to Jim Valentine and mother of their two daughters, Christina and Kelsey.

A non-profit, the IFE began sixteen years ago when Jim suggested some of his business pals and her diplomat and politician friends get together at a breakfast at their home. The mix led to a burst of influential joint activities. The IFE’s invitation-only INFO Roundtable breakfasts, so big they are now held at a hotel, bring together politicians, Supreme Court justices, the diplomatic community, and many of the major boldface names in town.

The IFE organizes programs to promote civility and leadership, and also encourages intercultural understanding among young people.

To find out what she’s up to next, check out “The Hill’s Pundits Blog.” Kathy is one of the bloggers, along with such newsmen as Bob Franken and Bill Press.

We don’t know when she sleeps.

Quick Notes 11/9

At the National Museum of Women in the Arts Fall Benefit, the sold-out event had a lot going for it, under the chairmanship of Patti Sowalsky. After a stunning performance by actress and local resident Lynda Carter, who has a great voice and delivery to match, came an excellent dinner, with a shrimp and grilled pineapple salad, and a wildly rich chocolate dessert bracketing a magnificent daube. That Provençal peasant dish of gently braised beef reached new heights here. The museum’s melt-in-your-mouth daube was so tender, it was almost as if hanger steak--which the French call “the butcher’s cut”--were used. If so, it was an excellent innovation.

I’m going to try to sleuth out the museum’s version of this dish (which I cooked traditionally for almost a decade in Provence), and will tell you about it next week.

The timeworn virtue of Thrift has suddenly become fashionable among Washington’s elite. Even those who have never read a menu from right to left are getting the habit. We know it will take a while for our nation to climb out of the financial pit; we did it before, we’ll do it again.

With a slow Christmas season looming, people are buying gifts much more cautiously than usual. Now, on a white horse, along comes the National Geographic Society to the rescue.

Bearing their banner “We Bring You the World,” they’re offering a world-ranging array of happy gift choices at a smashing warehouse sale. From 25% to as much as 90% will be lopped off the price of National Geographic merchandise: books, apparel, and gift items. It all happens over a three-day span at the D.C. Armory, Nov. 14, 10-6, Nov. 15 & 16, 9-5.

At the Table: Cassoulet

Election night nosh? Not exactly. This dish is as full of pork as a congressman’s earmark, but is easily kept warm for this night of erratic hungers--people glued to the TV, then suddenly starving.

In southwest France, cassoulet means controversy. Three competing towns claim supremacy: Castelnaudary, Toulouse and Carcassone. I tried ‘em all on the spot, loved every version. Pork and beans are the base. One faction adds lamb, another thinks duck a must-have, and purists insist on confit d’oie, goose preserved in its fat.

Actual prep time is not long, but you must start the soaking and simmering of the beans early. (Or cheat, I’ll never tell. Look for big cans of precooked beans, totaling about 5 pounds, and start with step 3, below.)

Here is a version so simplified you’re not even asked to tie up a bouquet garni. It’s delectable, serves 10-12, reheats better than ever, is easy to cut in half, and is great for this football season:

1. Place 3 lbs. great northern beans in a 5-6 qt. stockpot. Cover with water 3" above the beans. Boil 2 minutes. Set aside to soak 1 hour. Drain, return to pot, cover with water 3" above the beans.
   
   
2. Meanwhile, drop 1/4 lb. thick-cut bacon into boiling water 5 minutes. Drain and dice. Add to the pre-soaked beans, with an onion studded with 5 or 6 cloves, two scraped carrots cut in 3/4" lengths, 3 cloves minced garlic and 1 bay leaf. Simmer 1.5 hrs, skimming froth. Don’t boil.
   
   
3. Heat oven to 475. Cut 2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder and 2 lbs. boneless lamb shoulder into 1.5" cubes. Slice 2 lb. garlic or kielbasa sausage into 1" pieces.
   
   
4. Put 2 tbsp. olive oil into oven roaster pan, straddling it over stove burners. Brown the meats quickly. Finish roasting in oven, checking occasionally.
   
   
5. Reduce heat to 350. When beans are tender, drain into a bowl through a colander, reserve liquid.
   
   
6. Remove excess fat from roaster, push cooked meat aside, pour in 1 cup white wine, and scrape up the browned bits. Add one 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, with juice, 2 tsp. dried thyme, 1 tsp. black pepper and 1.5 tsp. salt.
   
   
7. Pour drained beans into roaster. (If using canned beans, at this point mix in 2 finely chopped carrots, 1 onion, finely chopped, 2 cloves garlic, minced and 1/4 tsp. ground cloves.)
   
   
8. Topping: mix well 2 cups coarse bread crumbs, 2 tbsp. olive oil, 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaved spinach, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper. Spread half the mix over beans and meats in roaster. Bake for 45 minutes.
   
   

After 20 minutes, when topping is toasted, press it down gently into beans, using a wooden spoon. Sprinkle with remaining topping. Finish baking. Taste for seasoning. Moisten with reserved bean liquid if needed. Enjoy!

Plan Ahead: Les Paladins

"The King’s Mistress" will be at the French Embassy Wednesday, November 12, so if you go for baroque, be there. The concert will echo the era of the Marquise de Pompadour, the favorite of Louis XV.

La Pompadour was so enamored of music and playacting that the king let her create a little theater at court, where she devised entertainments fit for her king.

You will hear the same music he heard when Les Paladins, an internationally known ensemble, perform compositions by a number of baroque composers, including Lully, Rameau and Mouret. Director is Jérôme Correas, with soprano Isabelle Poulenard (photo) and tenor Jean-François Lombard.

This rarely heard music is brought to us thanks to the eclectic taste of Roland Celette, the cultural attaché and director of La Maison Française at the embassy. He tells us that La Maison is now to be called the House of France DC. Ah well, this maison by any other name would be just as Gallic.

House of France DC, Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m. Concert followed by wine reception to meet the artists. Tickets: $20, instantseats.com.

After the successful New York premiere of Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, Karren Alenier’s jazz opera with composer William Banfield, she chronicled its birth in her new book, The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas, which includes interviews with Placido Domingo, composers Ned Rorem and Libby Larsen, librettist J.D. McClatchy and critic Tim Page.

Alenier will read from her book at The Wordworks’ Café Muse Literary Series, Nov. 17, 7-9 p.m., Friendship Heights Village Center, Chevy Chase.

The free program includes a reading by poet Kevin Prufer, live classical music and refreshments.

Spotlight On: Mark Bisnow

He's had a half dozen careers--political wire puller, lawyer, technology yea-sayer, who lost M's and M's when Microstrategy took a nosedive (that's millions and millions lost, not chocolate candies). He's been an author, radio host, columnist, and each time, if all else fails or bores him, comes up undaunted with something new. He's been called "the unsinkable Mark Bisnow."

Even his name presages his latest venture: eight free online business newsletters available in your inbox under the Bisnow on Business, (Almost) Never Boring banner. The letters cover legal, medical, real estate, women, technology and other topics. "The tone's irreverent on all of them," says Bisnow, who labels them "Washington's most widely read business news."

Always dynamic, before he was 20 he had earned a B.A. and a master's from Stanford, did a year at Princeton, then went on to Harvard Law after he married helpmeet Margot Machol, another political worker who herself eventually wound up on the Federal Trade Commission.

Be forewarned. You'll get the third degree if he's given half a chance. Avidly interested in anything and everything, with an author's instinct for the story, he wants to KNOW, just as for his newsletters, he wants to TELL!

Plan Ahead: Capital City Ball

Since the financial meltdown, charities are painfully aware contributions will be reduced, but there is a bright spot. Younger groups are entering the charity party circuit. Their revels lack the pomp of the Old Guard, but offer fun for an affordable price.

Case in point: two nice guys, Dr. John Dunford and Bruce Fries, decided last year to benefit a deserving charity, and in 8 weeks pulled together a gala that drew 250. This year it looks as if it will be even bigger.

Details: Capital City Ball. Sat. Nov. 22. Washington Club on Dupont Circle, 8:30 p.m. Black tie.

Live entertainment from Bittersweet, a hot 11-pc. band, Vegas-style casino, silent auction, open bar, heavy hors d’oeuvres. Queen Noor heads a list of notable sponsors. To benefit award-winning Polaris, a non-profit that fights the growing human trafficking of women and children. $100 before Nov. 1, $120 after. capitalcityball.org.

Quick Notes

Mayoral wife Michelle Fenty is looking radiant and VERY big around the middle; a little sister will join her twin boys. At the baby shower hosted by Rima Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti embassy was afloat with pink ballons. Even Rima’s signature red roses in the reflecting pool were baby pink, and the white chocolate baby shoe favors were tied with pink ribbons.

Most fun: sitting at the shower with those four smart girls, Mary Ourisman, Marlene Malek, Barbara Harrison and Aniko Gaal Schott. Designer Aniko’s planning the private suites at Verizon Center, and helping with the furnishing of the embassy of Monaco.

Virginia Hayes Williams, whose son Anthony was our recent mayor, has launched her Living Under God's Umbrella, the tale of her unusual life, at her 82nd birthday party hosted by art collector Judith Terra at White Oaks, Terra's historic Colorado Avenue home. Upcoming book signing on Nov. 21: ulcdc.org.

Wineman Daniel Mahdavian and wife Melinda Corcoran (granddaughter of legendary New Dealer and fixer "Tommy the Cork") hosted an interesting wine dinner at the Peacock Grand Café, whose placard proclaims it "K Street Election Headquarters," with extended happy hours and drink specials.

Bottles served were from the Starlight Vineyards of Arman Pahlavan, who presented a flight of four excellent Zinfandels from California's Alexander Valley, where that grape does very well. He also introduced his first bottlings of Sonoma-grown Viognier, which were well received.

Mahdavian is the president of the wine consultancy D M & Co. Consultants.

Capital Diary

Throughout this roller coaster presidential race, our brave Washington hostesses have soldiered on, some striving for guests who could gain them access to the social circle of the new administration, whichever party wins.

With the D.C. social season in full swing, invitations and Save the Date cards are multiplying in the mailbox. Hoping to "balance the table" at dinner parties, each hostess has updated her list of Available Bachelors.

ABs are trophies in this town, where women far outnumber the men and you need bench strength if your first choices are booked. Standards are somewhat less than exacting: prospective males must own a dinner jacket (tuxedo to the peasants).

A hostess, looking at her seated guests, wants to see matched sets: penguin, evening dress, penguin, evening dress, etc., though as a friend once remarked, "I invite my guests to dine, not mate."