I wonder if it’s more than coincidence that every photo I was prepping to post featured food.

This weekend kicked off with a bit of a cooking session as I made some potato and leek soup, and tried a Chocolate Orange cake recipe from Iron Chef Shellie, a local Melbourne food blogger. I’d been craving a jaffa-flavoured cake like the ones I used to get from a bakery in Balgownie, Wollongong. This one wasn’t quite like those I were trying to reproduce, but it was delicious and I’ll definitely make it again in the future. I was pretty happy with my cooking, particularly after some recent bad experiences in the kitchen.

Whilst browsing Iron Chef Shellie’s blog, I came across a review of Dahon Tea Lounge, a South Melbourne-based Filipino restaurant. Nico often laments the fact that you can’t buy Filipino food around, so we decided to head down there on Saturday for lunch.

Dahon focuses more on teas (ice and hot) and lunch repertoire rather than more elaborate Filipino foods. I had a crumbed chicken baguette (unlike Nico, I’d had breakfast and wasn’t as hungry), Nico had Java rice with Chicken Inasal and we shared Pancit Bihon (Filipino noodles). We also sampled the ice teas. Everything was delicious and I think we’ll be back soon so I can try the various pork dishes they serve.

Nico and I had decided to have a night in at the movies on Saturday, even going to the extent of making homemade (and somewhat dodgy) choc tops and popcorn. After all the food of Saturday (including a reprise of the potato and leek soup for dinner), I could barely stomach it all, so our freezer is still full of choc tops.

We watched the classic 9 to 5, then an episode of The West Wing before I crashed out at around 1am.