Delicious, family style food, served at Meling Guest Ranch

One of the greatest pleasures in life that I enjoy is eating good food, and meal time is always my favorite time of day. When you're staying at Meling Ranch, meal time will probably be the highlight of the day, as Meling Ranch is noted for the quality and quantity of their meals, served family-style in their rustic dining room.

Photo: Meling Ranch's main building, which houses the dining room, kitchen, and kitchen annex, on rainy Tuesday morning, October 1, 2007.

Andrea Meling, who is the "boss lady" of the ranch, is also the "boss lady" in the kitchen, as she runs the kitchen, plans the meals, and supervises Julie and Jicelia, the two girls who also share in the kitchen duty. Andrea is an excellent cook, and she uses family recipes that have been handed down to her from previous generations. Meling Ranch serves a mixture of traditional Mexican food, but many American "comfort food" entrees are served as well. Most of the food is prepared in the kitchen annex, and cooked on a wood-fired kitchen range. If you're looking for fancy food, such as truffles, quice or caviar, look elsewhere, as the food served at Meling Ranch couldn't be described as fancy, but it can be described as delicious, innovative, attractive, and just plain good, ranch-style cuisine. Andrea is an outstanding cook, and she has taught the fine art of ranch-style cooking to her employees.

Photo: Meling Ranch's well-equipped kitchen, and the seldom-used gas range. Most meals are cooked on the wood-fired stove in the kitchen annex.

Due to the fact that Meling Ranch is quite isolated from the outside world, and has a reputation for serving fine food, virturally all of the guests take their meals at the ranch. Meals are not included with the price of lodging, but are very reasonably priced, and are served family-style to ranch guests in the large, rustic dining room. You'll never go away hungry, as seconds, or for that matter thirds, are the norm. As of this writing, October, 2007, the price for breakfast or lunch was only $8.00, and dinner was $11.00, which is an outstanding deal, considering the quality and quantity of food that you get for your hard-earned dollars.

Photo: Andrea Meling smiles for the camera, as the girls begin to prepare salad for the evening meal. At the time of my visit, I was the only guest, so I was given the royal treatment.

Meals are announced, cattle ranch style, by one of the kitchen staff banging on a triangle, mounted on the wall outside of the kitchen annex. Meal time is eight in the morning for breakfast, lunch is at noon, and dinner is at seven. Guests are served in the large dining room on one of the large wooden tables, lumber camp style, while the staff members eat at the picnic bench located in the kitchen annex. Guests and staff are served virtually the same food, but the guests are served many extras that the staff don't enjoy, and special care is made to ensure an attractive presentation for guest meals.

Photo: Andrea Meling cooks salsa, for the breakfast meal. Note the pan of refried beans cooking on the far burner.

During my visit to Meling Ranch, I was the only guest, so Andrea asked me every day what I wanted for my next meal, and I told her to fix whatever she wanted to, as I like surprises, and I love everything. My major request was to be served refried beans, eggs over easy, corn tortillas and salsa for breakfast, whatever sort of meat she wanted, or any other sides would be fine with me. Every meal that I enjoyed at Meling Ranch was delicious, and I can highly recomment the wonderful served at Rancho Meling.

Photo: Julie, to the left, and Jicelia cook on the wood-fired range in the kitchen annex.

Tuesday morning, October 3, 2007, my last meal at the ranch, I chose to eat breakfast in the kitchen, with the staff, and I requested an identical meal to what was served the staff. From personal experience, I can attest to the fact that the staff don't suffer any hardships in the meal department, as the meal that I enjoyed with the staff was delicious.

Meling Guest Ranch serves delicious ranch-style food, family style. You'll never go away from the table hungry, and you'll always leave with a smile on your face. When you visit Meling Ranch, you can look forward to many delicious meals. Muy sabroso!

Photo: Julie sets a wonderful table in the dining room, custom made just for me.

How could I forget? If you're interested in Meling Ranch cuisine, click on this link for a detailed meal-by-meal description of every delicious meal I enjoyed during my stay at Meling Ranch. Waring! This article is only intended for serious food junkies!