Julie de la Frontera

I don't know if I mentioned it but I'd been at the Flamenco Festival in Jerez de la Frontera the last two weeks, thanks to my friend Julie. This is where I've been seeing all the great flamenco shows. I love Jerez and I love the woman who let me stay with her so I'm going to list the top 10 things about Julie & Jerez that made the last two weeks so great:

1. Julie! She's the best! We danced together when I was a teenager but now she lives in Switzerland so the only time we get to see each other is in Jerez; we've been in Jerez together 3 times now! She's knows a lot of stuff about a lot of flamenco things and she's loving, generous & funny. I'm trying to convince her to start a flamenco blog - AURORA, help me think of a name for Julie's flamenco blog!

2010

2009

2008

2. Jerez reunited me with Julie in 2008. We randomly met on the street after not seeing each other for over a decade...thanks Jerez!

3. Flamenco is a huge part of Jerez (they say flamenco singing started here.) Some of my favorite dancers have come from Jerez like Mercedes Ruiz, Joaquin Grilo & Andres Pena, and I've seen them all dance at the festival. For someone who loves flamenco, Jerez is great place with a great festival.

4. My friend XM! I'm using her initials because I can't spell her name. Julie introduced me to her and she's a salsa/flamenco dancing language genius who loves good food. So Julie, XM & I have a lot of fun together running around meeting all the cute waiters in all the delicious restaurants here.

Thankfully she has already started a blog for me about flamenco - it's called: 'Flamenco tidbits' and it's address is: http://justforjustine.blogspot.com/ (how cute is that?!) Thanks XM!

5. Jerez is famous for Sherry. During the muslim occupation of Iberia the city was called Xeres or Xerez, pronounced 'sherish', and this is where the word 'sherry' comes from. Anyways, there's a white sherry here they call 'fino' and I love it! (Julie introduced me to it.) This is me and XM enjoying our sherries.

6. I got a new pair of pink flamenco shoes from Julie for 25 Euros. They're not actually new but they're new for me. And I bought myself a new pair of dark teal ones - I HAD TO MOM! - they were so pretty.

7. Chiguagua is a Mexican restaurant in Jerez. It's actually sort of Mexican & Spanish fusion and it's really good. Julie, XM & I eat here every time we come to Jerez. BJ, Aurora & Hali all loved it too when they came. This is us at Chiguagua with our friend Carmen:

8. Speaking of Bj & Aurora - my beautiful friends from home - Jerez reminds me of them. We had the best week here last year. We ate great food, we saw great flamenco, we made fabulous memories in the streets with our camera and we met cute boys from famous 80's spanish rock bands. When the taxi was driving me to Julie's apartment, from the train station, I saw the street we took our beatles-like photo at, and all my wonderful memories of them came flooding back to me. It felt like I was being welcomed back by a place that loves me. Here's me, BJ & Aurora outside Chiguagua last year:

9. Chocolate balls - remember these BJ & AURORA?

10. Revuelto de la Flamenca: Julie & I discovered it at a restaurant here. I only ordered it because it's named after my favorite thing. But it turned out to be really good. Julie calls it Spanish comfort food. I have a feeling it's special to that particular restaurant so I think the only time I will ever get to eat it is when I'm with Julie, & in Jerez. But that's also ultimately what adds to making it so special...comfort food with comfort people in comfort places...perfect.