Island East Markets and Weekend Brunch at the News Room

The News Room

33 Tong Chong Street, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

 

Rating: 7.5/10 
Price: Around 100-150 HKD for a late-Benedict lunch

What do you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon, where you are bored out of your mind but had not planned anything in particular to do for the rest of the day?
  Although many men (sorry for the gross generalization) do not seem to understand the reasoning, but to me it makes perfect sense to call up bunch of friends and head out for a late-brunch!

 
Plus, there was the Island East Markets to check out right next door, so it was the perfect excuse to indulge myself with some eggs Benedict!

All three of us got Eggs Benedicts.
Well.. I kind of forced my friends to get them, as they were unconvinced as to how poached eggs can outweigh pancakes or french toasts...but after long hearty promises (although with slight hesitation) they complied and we were served with double Eggs Benedict with Salmons :)

The eggs were fresh and perfectly poached, and the muffins toasted to the right crispiness!
It was absolutely a delight, and these girls were won over by the beauty of Eggs Benedict after the first bite or two!

Island East Markets

I had planned to check out this mini-market for months but Sunday being a designated lazy day... and not being able to find another enthusiastic grocery/market shopper.. it had always been delayed till today!

The market itself was smaller than I had thought it would be.. but it had a wide selection of fine foods, organic vegetables, hand-made jewelry.. and to my surprise root-beer and gingerale!

If I had not planned to go to Taipei the next day, I probably would've bought more vegetables and fruits but today I stopped myself at a glass of Coffee, a croissant and a necklace! 

The Market is held in Quarry Bay. It only took around 5 minutes walk from the station and was really easy to find!

The First stall was Ming-Cha... selling exquisite Oolong Tea with an even fancier name! Although I loved the tea that I had sampled... I did have a whole box of tea (with Every Fruit tea imaginable and.... tons of chinese tea as well)... So on we moved on to the Levain Bakery Stall

I had always planned to go to Levain Bakery in Central... so it was a great delight and a surprise to stumble across their stall selling oh so many french breads and pastries.
I'm usually very good at staying clear of carbs... mainly rice and pasta... but when it comes to bread...especially ones as delicious as these, I seem to forget I am on a diet!

I had really wanted to buy a loaf of the sourdough bread or the dark-rye bread but thank god I had trips planned the day after or I really would've bought all of them!

In the end I opted for a Hazlenut Chocolate Croissant.!
Maybe it was my guilt, or maybe it was the paper-thin crispness of the pastry that went perfectly with the chocolates and hazelnuts... but I had devoured this little croissant in less than a minute.. and was left wondering what I had just eaten.

It was beautiful!

We then found this small booth selling hand-drip coffee! :) I never can resist the smell of fresh coffee and the barista was kind of cute! :) on a side note they said they also offer hand-coffee classes... and I have a friend in mind that is perfect to drag to these things!

Hopefully I will end up going (reasonably soon) and blog about it as well!

The coffee I did try was from Kenya, and it was very different from the ones I had tried previously. It had a very distinct earthy flavor that I hadn't tasted before! I'm not quite sure if it is unique to the region or not but maybe next time when I buy coffee beans, I'll try Kenyan ones and see!

I finally bought these cute necklaces in shape of dragonflies for my mom and I! They were only 200HKD and very cute indeed! :) Overall, today was a perfectly successful and delicious Sunday afternoon!