Oriental Noodle Bowl

It's surprising that being on vacation for an extended period of time makes you a bit sluggish at getting back into your normal daily routines.  Compounding the problem were the health problems my husband was having.  Between being in Las Vegas we were home for about eighteen hours before flying out to Florida.  He was seen in emerg during that time period and prescribed medication for unexplained edema.  The following first full day after arriving home, on the Friday he was back into emerg.

We still had not been to the grocery store so the evening meal would be from the freezer and pantry.  That's not a bad thing.  I decided to make a simple noodle bowl for dinner that night.  Noodles bowls have become one of our favourites this past winter.  They are versatile, warm and comforting.  This time I used two beef soup bones from the freezer to make fresh stock using one of my pressure cookers.  Once the stock was made, I cut the meat from the bones in bite sized pieces adding it back to the stock.  Then I added in about a third of a bag of oriental vegetable mix.  This is one of the few frozen vegetables mixes I buy and I always buy it at M & M Meats.  I just love the tender baby corn!  I spooned the meat and vegetable mixture over cooked angel hair pasta then finished off with a ladle of stock.

The following day my husband wasn't feeling well and late Sunday night was admitted to hospital.  Needless to say there wasn't a lot of cooking going on that weekend.  The immediate cause for his hospitalization has passed.  He is home now and on the mend, back to the office on greatly reduced hours and taking things easy.  For all who have asked, thanks for your concern.  They are still doing a lot of tests but his appetite is somewhat back so that's a good sign!  We will be making some dietary changes as a result of some of the tests but more on that after we get the big picture.

Ling's Buffet in Lakeland, Florida

What impresses me most about vacation eating is how very quickly it differs from our eating habits at home.  At home there is a big emphasis on red meat and local caught fresh water fish.  At the same time there is the emphasis on cooking from scratch and not eating out much.  When we are on vacation the emphasis becomes seafood and depending on accommodations eating out is the norm.  With the purchase of our vacation home in the sunny south there will be more of an emphasis of homecooked focusing on seafoods (more on this to come) but for the first couple of days of our vacation we ate out.

Ling's Buffet is located at  4947 U.S. 98, Lakeland, FL 33809-3610  in a small plaza.  There are 3 other locations in the Lakeland area.  Ling's is a sushi bar combined with Chinese buffet.  The atmosphere is extremely friendly.  The buffet was $11.75 each that included all-you-can-eat with refillable drinks.  There are no alcoholic drinks available at Ling's but the food more than makes up for that.  The food offerings were more than substantial.  This restaurant is one we will be visiting again and one I would recommend if you are in the area.

Crab legs are one of my absolute favourite foods!  The only thing better is all you can eat crab legs.  Just look at this beautiful plateful of crab legs.  Ling's buffet had both hot a cold crab legs and let me tell you I did have a crab leg feast.  They also had hot and cold shrimp, shrimp dishes, raw oysters and shushi.

Sushi is a bit misunderstood in that sushi does not mean raw fish as some think it does.  Shushi refers to the presentation and surprizing may not even contain fish.  To the top on the left is the Californian sushi with avocado and to the right is a crab meat coated sushi of the day.  Both were quite good and something that would be easy to duplicate at home.  I've made sushi a few times so will share the how-tos shortly especially the Californian sushi. 

One of the most important things to remember when cooking crab legs, lobster or shrimp at home is to not over cook it.  Overcooking will cause this type of seafood to turn rubbery.  The shell will be a greyish blue when raw.  Place in boiling water until the shell turns an orangish red and no longer.  The colour change is like a built-in doneness indicator.  As soon as the shell turns colour, remove from the pot for serving.  Serve with drawn butter or in the case of shrimp serve with home canned seafood cocktail sauce.