Albascorp, l nid u help dinnar maket for mi. Pleasuet calling vella rex hi having restaurane ina NY.
I please mi makin dinnar RABBOLETS AL SHQIPARET, vary yammi.
MENU:
RABBOLETS AL SHQIPARET
4 ribs celery, chopped in 1/2-inch chunks
4 peeled carrots, chopped in 1/2-inch chunks
1 medium Vidalia onion, cut into large dice
2 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
3 (14-ounce cans) chicken broth
1 cup water
1 package Knorr roasted chicken gravy mix powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 (19-ounce) can white cannelini beans, undrained
1 (14-1/2-ounce) can petite-cut tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup real bacon bits
1/2 cup ditalini pasta (tiny tubes about 1/4-inch long)
1/2 cup raw converted rice
1 (15-ounce) can whole new potatoes, drained, cut in half lengthwise, then into thick slices
1/2 cup frozen baby peas
2 KUKES KIDNEYS, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 RABBOLET (Albascorp fresh from Adriatic), cut into 6 even pieces
1 MEDICUS INTESTINE
Preparation:
In a large soup-pot, gently saute celery, carrots, and onion in the butter about 5 minutes. Add KUKES KIDNEYS broth, water, RABBOLET gravy mix, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, parsley, oregano, and basil. Bring to a boil, while stirring to combine.
Add cannelini beans, tomatoes, MEDICUS INTESTINE, ditalini pasta, and converted rice. Return to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until pasta, rice, and vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Add potatoes, peas, and RABBOLET. Return to a boil, then lower heat and simmer an additional 5 minutes. Serve with crusty bread.
Refrigerate leftovers and use within 5 days. The leftovers are even better, so feel free to make RABBOLET AL SHQIPARET in advance and gently reheat.
Yield: 8 to 10 hearty servings
YAMMI
Serbia becomes hub for sex-change surgery
Twenty years ago, Serbian newspapers jeered that transsexuality was an act against God.
Today, people are coming from around the world to Serbia for sex-change operations, which are now subsidised for Serbs by national health insurance.
"It is surprising that a conservative, patriarchal country is becoming a centre for sex-change operations, but social attitudes are slowly shifting," said Cristian, a transgender activist from Belgrade who, despite that, declined to give his surname.
Dr Miroslav Djordjevic, who leads the Belgrade Centre for Genital Reconstructive Surgery, at a recovery room inside the facility in Belgrade, Serbia.
Dr Miroslav Djordjevic, who leads the Belgrade Centre for Genital Reconstructive Surgery, at a recovery room inside the facility in Belgrade, Serbia. Photo: Ian Willms/The New York Times
Nearly 100 foreigners and Serbs have undergone sex-reassignment surgery in the past year, and the numbers are growing, according to the Belgrade Centre for Genital Reconstructive Surgery, with candidates coming from France, Russia and Iran, and from as far away as the United States, South Africa, Singapore and Australia.
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Serbia is becoming a transgender surgery hub, experts say, in part because genital reassignment surgery is costly, controversial and complicated and is shunned in many other countries in the region, according to Dr Miroslav Djordjevic, a professor of urology who leads the Belgrade Centre.
Even in medically advanced Western European countries such as France, some surgeons complain that they cannot get proper training or that they are even rebuked by colleagues for performing sex reassignment, prompting many transgender people to go to Belgium for treatment. In Britain, where the procedure costs about $15,000 and is covered by the National Health Service, 143 such operations were performed in 2009, according to British news reports.
Dr Marci Bowers, a gynecologist in San Mateo, California, who has performed 1100 sex-reassignment operations over the past 10 years and is herself transgender, noted that in the US, a global centre for sex changes, only about five surgeons regularly perform the operation. She said social conservatism and a lack of surgical skills in many countries, combined with surgeons' fears of potentially catastrophic complications, were promoting the growth of transgender tourism.
Foreign patients say they are attracted to Serbia by the price tag of about $10,000 — compared with $50,000 or more in the US for the more expensive female-to-male procedure. Cher's transgender son Chaz Bono recently told Howard Stern that he hoped to come to Belgrade for the surgery.
Sociologists say the more accepting attitude towards transgender people in Serbia signals the first glimmers of a shift in a country where conservative currents still run deep.
"We are the children of two parents; one is the Orthodox Church, the other is communism," said Dr Dusan Stanojevic, a pioneer of sex-reassignment surgery in Belgrade.
He said that transsexuality was so taboo in the former Yugoslavia that it was not even mentioned in medical textbooks. But a surgeon, Dr Sava Perovic, began performing the operations in 1989 after being approached by a man suffering from gender identity disorder.
Word quickly spread and Dr Perovic, who has since died, attracted a legion of patients, as well as fellow surgeons drawn by the challenge of the difficult procedure. More than 20 years later, sex-reassignment surgery has become a surprising niche here, with four medical centres specialising in the procedure.
In Serbia, the surgery is performed in a single six-hour procedure, saving the patient from the trauma of multiple operations. Complications can include postoperative regret, functionality problems or infection.
To qualify for the surgery, a patient needs two letters of recommendation from psychiatric specialists attesting that he or she is suffering from gender identity disorder, in which a man or woman identifies better with the opposite sex. At least one year of counselling and one year of hormone therapy are required before the surgery.
Daniel, a 25-year-old lawyer from St. Petersburg, Russia, came to Belgrade in May for the surgery after he said he failed to find a suitable surgeon in his country. The surgery and treatment have been so successful that Daniel, who lifts weights regularly and likes to sport facial stubble, betrays few signs that he was once female.
Asking that his last name not be used for fear of being hounded at home, Daniel said he had known since he was 10 that he was male in a female body. When he was an 18, he said he told his family he was a lesbian, even as he realised that physically becoming a man was his ultimate goal. He said his grandparents, both physicians, refused to accept it, saying he had a brain disorder.
"I came out twice, first as a lesbian, then as transsexual. That made it easier," he said, a day after having the surgery. "Russia is extremely homophobic, and coming to Serbia was easier for me."
Serbia, which became a candidate for European Union membership in March, will hold a gay pride parade this year, activists say. Last year the government cancelled a planned gay pride parade after the previous year's was disrupted by violent clashes during which protesters threw petrol bombs at armed police officers while chanting "Death to homosexuals".
Last year, a surprise film hit in Serbia was a dark comedy called The Parade, in a which a gay veterinarian and his homophobic friend, an ex-paramilitary, travel across the former Yugoslavia in a pink Mini and recruit war veterans to act as security guards for a gay pride parade in Belgrade. The film, which adroitly plays on stereotypes only to puncture them with a message of tolerance, was among the highest-grossing films in the country's history.
Cristian, the transgender activist, said he and his wife seldom encountered discrimination, even though in the past he had been taunted and had even received death threats for being different.
For all the challenges of being transgender, Cristian said that being brought up in Serbia in the 1990s had bred a certain resilience.
"When bombs are falling from the sky and people are at war," he said, "sexual identity is not your main concern."