Sao Nam Vietnamese, Chocolate Buttermilk Mascarpone Cake and Salsa

I admit. Not very disciplined when it comes to making daily uploads over the weekend, so sorry about that. Hence, I've decided that the best may be to compile it all under one post for easier reference. 

It was my mom's birthday last Saturday so we took her out for a nice dinner at Sao Nam's along Tengkat Tong Shin and then I served her with a delicious cake after. Needless to say, all the calories I burnt at the gym yesterday became wasted effort. But someone once told me that I was allowed a break once in a while as a reward.... or maybe I just made that rule on my own.

Anyway, here goes. As usual, I won't post the restaurant's full calorie value or recipes unless someone asks me in detail, so please let me know if you need a proper ingredient listing and count, it will require time. My apologies in advanced for the weidest restaurant pictures ever. But I only had my phone camera and was too lazy to get off my fat ass to move around the table :P

Sao Nam Vietnamese Restaurant - Tengkat Tong Shin

Chiken on sugar cane skewers - 600 calories

Broiled and then roasted beef - 374 calories

Special crispy pancake - 343 calories

Rice paper spring rolls - 262 calories

Eggplant fried with garlic and chilli - 329 calories

Chicken Stey - 1241 calories (Never order this if you want to be healthy, observe the oil)

Boiled Okra with tomato garlic sauce - 175.6 calories

Prawn Curry - 382 calories (prawns are healthy at about 10 to 15 calories each)

Total from that meal was 3706.6 calories. But I only had my share of about 529.5 calories. I enjoyed the meal very much but on the whole I felt it was a little too expensive in some areas. I think the chicken stew was the worst of the lot, since it came at a hefty price of RM25 for a few pieces of chicken and loads of oil. Not a good price to pay, especially not with your health. So will we go back? Only if we feel like expensive Vietnamese food..... so maybe not.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Mascarpone Filling 

  

Ingredients 

1 and 3/4 cups cake flour (light flour and not all purpose or self-raising) - 796.25 calories

1 teaspoon baking powder - 2.44 calories

1 teaspoon baking soda - No calories

1/2 teaspoon salt - No calories

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder - 36 calories (Ah hah! Its not chocolate that makes you fat afterall!)

1 cup sugar - 774 calories

1 stick unsalted butter - 1627.6 calories

1 teaspoon vanilla essence - 18 calories

2 large eggs (In our parts it should be 3 eggs) - 195 calories

1 cup buttermilk - 98 calories

Berries soaked in hot sugar and honey syrup - 122 calories

500 grams of mascarpone cheese - 1920 calories

1 cup heavy or whipping cream (or low fat cream if on diet watch) - 300 calories

I had a lot of fun making this and then eating this. But.....You ready for it? The total calories in this cake that serves 12 was.......5859.29 calories!!! Not to worry if you stick to only one slice since its only 488 calories, which is well within daily limits. Though I wouldn't recommend eating slices of cakes everyday and I suspect this is exactly where all those added pounds are coming from. Unfortunately, I can't help it. Two things work against my favour, a) I love to bake and b) I love eating sweets. So if anyone wants to know the cooking method for the above, do let me know. I'll be glad to share.

So after that whole Saturday of indulgence, it was back to basics with a nice bowl of fresh salsa. I simply chopped up tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and a few cloves of garlic. You could even add parsley or spring onions too but I didn't have any in my fridge. Next, I drizzled some olive oil, some dried basil, pepper, salt and sherry vinegar. Since my stomach doesn't take chilli too well, I left that out. But if you prefer a little spice then just add a single chilli and you're good to go. Me and the hubby had this with a few slices of Iranian or flat bread. The whole bowl was only about 250 calories, but it filled me up fast and was simply yummy. I'd recommend that you try it... but err, get those mints ready. You will have onion breath.

My half-eaten bowl of tomato, cucumber and onion salsa