I just recently moved to an amazing building in Jersey City, the Beacon. It’s got tons of amenities, but the best thing so far is the community that makes up the building.

Today, I attended the First Annual Jazz Brunch. It was supposed to be held on the sundeck, but it was nasty weather wise, so the event was moved to the theater. Chapman Concierge (which is in charge of the special events in the building) did a really nice job in relocating and adjusting to the indoor setting.

The event was catered by East Coast Caterers. The spread included breakfast sausages, steamed broccoli, bacon, scrambled eggs, brownies, French toast, delicious home fries, flounder Francaise, chicken pasta, grilled veggies, Champagne and spirits from Pastore Wine and Liquors one of our sponsors. My favorite was definitely the home fries (I went up for seconds).

It seems that many residents in the building are fans of Bloody Marys for they were seen in mostly everyone’s hands. Many of the ladies were doing Royal Kirs and Mimosas, but I stuck to plain old Bubbly (no need to mess with perfection).

It was a great deal for only $30.00 we got to meet our neighbors who are all incredibly sweet people. I can’t wait until the next event and I’m looking forward to getting to know the rest of my neighbors.

Perusing the Selections

The Healthy Selections

The not so healthy selections

You can tell what people like to eat by how empty the plate is

The Flounder

Upclose and personal with the flounder francais

Who does not love pasta?

Grilled Veggies

This was a very popular man during the brunch

The new neighbors

I've been heading out to Jersey City quite a bit lately. One of our latest finds was Ibby's Falafel on Grove Street. It is a small place with outdoor seating.

Upon entering, the restaurant is small, beautifully decorated and extremely clean.

We walked in and hungrily ordered. I opted for the Falafel, hummus & baba sandwich and my two companions had the lamb shawarma and the stuffed grape leaves. The bill came to under $20 and the food was prepared with speed. The gentleman at the counter was warm, courteus and helpful (need to ask him his name next time).

The food was quite delicious. My sandwich was made of pita, falafel balls, hummus and veggies. It was a healthy and delicious start to the day. The grape leaves blew me away. I took a bite of the lamb shawarma and was left to salivate. The meat was juicy and flavorful. The hot sauce is spicy, so beware when you liberally squeeze it into your sandwich, if your tongue is not a spice master, I'd day leave it to the experts. The portions were just big enough that I was sated without being overly full.

The day was lovely, the food delicious and the conversation great. I look forward to my next visit and to trying out more of their dishes.

Ibby's Falafel

303 Grove Street

Jersey City, NJ

(Between City Hall & Grove Path Station)

201-432-2400

10am-12am 7 days a week

Delivery Available

We had our 6th event. This time we had Desiree (the assistant store manager of Whole Foods) walk us through the store at the bowery. We started off with a light snack upstairs so everyone cold get to know each other. Then we headed downstairs for the tour.

Desiree explained that Whole Foods was the first store to carry natural products. She explained that all the meats at the store come from humane companies such as Bell and Evans who provides Whole Foods with chickens raised on an all natural diet, with no antibiotics, growth hormones or preservatives.

We also discussed "bird friendly coffee", which left an un-answered question, so here goes: shade groen coffee is good for birds who live in those areas. It also lowers the need for fertilizers and herbicides. The majority of coffee grown is usually 2/3 of a farm. Shade grown coffee can host about 150 species of birds as opposed to non-shade coffee which only keeps from 20-50. The bird population has decreased significantly, for example there are 70% less Cape May Warbles.  So after doing a little research, I'd say its worth it to purchase Bird friendly coffee.

Right after that we hit up the pet food section, Desiree explained the benefits of feeding dogs a raw diet. This is something we truly believe in. Petey (the mascot of FriendsEAT) has been on a raw meat diet for the past 3 years. He eats Stella and Chewy's, it's an all natural, raw pet food made from human grade free range meats and organic veggies. That's better than most people eat, but we have noticed a significant change in his health and attitude when we switched. I remember when my vet kept telling me to give Petey kibble, and I made the analogy of Total. According to the advertisement, Total has 100% of all vitamins and minerals needed by a human, so in theory, if I eat Total at every meal, I should not need to eat anything else. We all know this is not true and it is the same for animals, so I urge everyone to really watch what they feed their pets.

Ok, back to the topic at hand. The most interesting thing I learned about was Vegan sugar. So it turns out that sugar utilizes cow bone char to whiten sugar. Brown sugar is NOT considered Vegan; it is made by adding molasses to refined sugar (which was made with bone char). If this is an issue for you, one way to ascertain that you are going Vegan is to stay away from ALL refined sugar and utilizing turbinado sugar or beet sugar. Just in case you are interested, vegfamily.com (where I got my info) lists the following companies as Vegan friendly:

Florida Crystals Refinery
P.O. Box 86
South Bay, FL 33493
407-996-9072
Labels: Florida Crystals

Refined Sugars Incorporated
One Federal St.
Yonkers, NY 10702
914-963-2400
Labels: Jack Frost, Country Cane, 4# Flow-Sweet
Pillsbury
Makes powdered brown sugar

Supreme Sugar Company (subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland)
P.O. Box 56009
New Orleans, LA 70156
504-831-0901
Labels: Supreme, Southern Bell, Rouse's Markets

We also discussed sodium content and what we should be consuming daily. The US Department of Health and Human Services says we should have no more than 2,300 mg per day (1 tsp of salt). The average American has an average of 5,000 (twice the recommended ammount). Where does this come from? Most likely prepared foods, I went onto http://www.nutritiondata.com/ and checked out a couple prepated items:

A plain hot dog has 710 mg of sodium
A beef and cheddar hot pocket has 960 mg sodium
Lean cuisine chicken and vegetables with Vermicelli has 633 mg sodium

This is where we get in trouble. Also, we have to make sure to see how many servings per package. Sometimes companies will list 250 mg of sodium, but there may be 3 servings per packet making the true sodium content 750 mg. So I guess the thing we come away with is keep your consumption of prepared foods low.

We learned a bunch more stuff, but the best part was getting to know everyone. I'd like to thank everyone that made it out (battling the pouring rain) and special thanks to our host Desiree.