Community News: Eater names Best Indian Restaurants, Trivia at Ed & Mary's, Marketplace JC Returns

Jersey City

• The Royal Men Foundation, in conjunction with Larsen's Restaurant, is holding a dinner fundraiser to help send 5 teens from each high school in Jersey City to a viewing of Marvel's Black Panther. The fundraiser is on 2/10 beginning at 4pm and tickets are $12 each. 
• Two Jersey City restaurants made Eater's list of Best Regional Indian in NY and NJ: Sri Ganesh's Dosa House for their South Indian cuisine and Hyderabadi House for their specialties from the Hyderabad region.

Get to Know JC Eater: Aman

Welcome to "Get to Know JC Eater" where every week I post a profile of a local resident sharing where and what they love to eat in Jersey City.  This site is meant to be useful to the community so what better way to do that than involve the community itself? If you'd like to be featured, please leave a comment below or email me directly.

This week's JC Eater is a banh mi fan who loves checking out the local street fairs and weekend markets.

The Annual Newport Beach Party Recap

Recently, I was invited* by Quinn PR to attend the Annual Newport Beach Party as their guest. After a few years of having to miss it, I was especially excited to be able to attend this year and check out the event first-hand.

(photo from Quinn PR)

Get To Know JC Eater: Amy

Welcome to "Get to Know JC Eater" where every week I post a profile of a local resident who wants to share where and what they love to eat in Jersey City.  This site is meant to be useful to the community so what better way to do that then involve the community itself? If you'd like to be featured, please leave a comment below or email me directly.

This week's JC Eater is a long-time Jersey City resident who gets some of her favorite neighborhood dishes at the local farmers' market.  

Community News

• The Farmers' Market at Grove Street will be up and running tomorrow even though it's a holiday.
• The Riverview Farmers' Market is extending their season by three weeks and will now have their final market day on Sunday, November 23rd.
• Sam a.m. is debuting a new junior supper club this Tuesday, Oct. 14th. It will be $25 for three courses.

Blue Lotus

One of the few Indian restaurants located in Downtown Jersey City, Blue Lotus opened earlier this year near Hamilton Park on Erie Street between 7th and 8th in a space that has seen a lot of restaurant turnover. Luckily, Blue Lotus seems to be here to stay, offering lunch, dinner, take-out and delivery.

I went for dinner on a weekday and while it was pretty quiet early on, the restaurant soon filled up, stopping short of being crowded, but never got loud or chaotic. Service was attentive and very eager to please, but not overbearing. The menu is separated into categories with several options to choose from under each category and you'll find both classic dishes and some original options.

When we sat down, we were given poppadom but instead of the two chutneys (usually a tamarind and a tomato/onion) that I usually see, we were given three - one was a very good version of the sweet, fruity tamarind, then there was something that tasted almost like orange marmalade that I don't personally recommend, and a very smooth tomato chutney that was spicier than I typically taste but also very good.

We also ordered mango lassis ($4) which were good, but not especially memorable, and vegetable samosas ($5) which were excellent. They were perfectly fried - nice and crispy on the outside with a tender and well-spiced potato and pea filling, accompanied by the tamarind chutney and a cilantro sauce. The cilantro was excellent, herby and slightly spicy which paired well with the potato and I recommend using that versus the tamarind for this dish.