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.