Food on the tracks of Nepal

Details: Last Updated: Tuesday, 09 January 2024 19:44

When we were preparing for trekking in Nepal, we read a lot of reports. Some of them had only emotions and photos, but there were also useful reports with the time of passage, with the cost of accommodation, but in none of the reports could we find food prices, the maximum that we found was the amount of money spent per day. But this is also an ambiguous figure. Even within the same group, the cost of food may vary by 2-3 times, it all depends on the requests. Someone needs not only to eat, but also dessert, and maybe beer/rum/vodka. In general, all people are different, and there is an opportunity to choose on the tracks in Nepal...

According to the names on the menu, it is not always possible to understand what it is and what it is eaten with, so here I will try to describe the main dishes that are offered in lodges on the tracks of Nepal, in particular the track around Annapurna and the track to the Everest base camp. And prices for all dishes in different villages along the way of the tracks will also be given.

Food in Nepal, Nepali dishes

The basis of food in Nepal and in general throughout Asia is rice, so several rice dishes can be found in any cafe or lodge.

Plain Rice is plain boiled rice without anything, one of the cheapest dishes.

Fried Rice - fried rice. Boiled rice is fried in a frying pan in sauce, onions and spices are added, each cook has his own set. It is a very tasty dish, and the portion is usually very large.

There are many modifications of fried rice: veg fried rice - vegetables are added (carrots, cabbage, greens, etc.), egg - fried egg is added, tune - canned fish (tuna) are added, meet - with meat, and mix fried rice - all of the above together (you need to specify what exactly)

Dal Bhat - DalBat, a traditional Indian-Nepali dish (called Tali in India), is usually served on a large metal platter. It consists of a set of boiled rice (bat), lentil soup (dal), stewed vegetables curry, flatbread - papadum (but in some places they do not give flatbread). Maybe with meat. The main advantage of this dish is that you can ask for an additive (in general, they say that it is customary to ask for an additive once, but I took a second supplement several times, but for this you need to be very hungry), the portion is very large.

Perhaps these are all rice dishes that are often found during trekking in Nepal.

Another popular dish is Noodles Noodles (and other pasta - spaghetti, pasta). It can also be simply boiled - Plain Noodles (boiled noodles) and fried - fried noodles. All sorts of additional goodies can be added to noodles (vegetables - veg, cheese - cheese, egg - egg, fish -tuna, meat -meet). The portion is usually also quite large, but if you take pasta, you will get a little less due to the fact that they are empty inside and occupy a larger volume.

Potatoes - yes, they also eat potatoes here, although all that we saw raw was terrible - small, sluggish, sprouted, no one would buy such a thing at the bazaar, but they cook delicious. They cook it as we do - boiled in a uniform (boiled potato, plain potato), fried (fried potato), mashed potatoes (like mashed potatoes, but without milk) - mashed potato, French fries - finger chips or french fries, a large potato pancake - hash brown potato.

Mo-Mo - local Nepali dumplings (or dumplings), come with meat, potatoes, vegetables, and egg. They can be boiled (steam), fried (fried), with curry sauce (C Mo-Mo - Curry Mo-Mo). Usually a serving is 10 pieces plus a bowl of sauce.

Spring Rol l - various fillings wrapped in a pancake or thin pita bread. Fillings like in Mo-Mo (meat, vegetables, egg, potatoes, fish) can also be with noodles, and sweet, for example, with apple or chocolate (more precisely, with snickers, mars, etc.). On tracks, spring roll most often consists of a large pie, sometimes even two per serving.

Curry - stewed vegetables (can be with meat or fish) in hot sauce, served in a large bowl, sometimes a plate of boiled rice is served separately.

You can often find the section - Breads - bread. This includes all flour products: Chapatti - a thin flour tortilla, Tibetan Bread - a thick flatbread, such as pita bread baked in a frying pan, Buckwheat Bread - a flatbread made of corn flour, Pancake - a large pancake.

Soups - the main part of soups are instant soups from sachets, but sometimes they add something real, such as potatoes or dried mushrooms. But sometimes they make normal soups, but they are usually more expensive. To clarify, you can ask - is it powder soup or not. They also make soups from Chinese instant noodles, called Ra-ra noodle soup, wai-wai noodle soup or something else, depending on the brand of noodles. But there are also normal soups - Thukpa, soup with potatoes and noodles, SherpaStew - a thick soup of everything that is (potatoes, noodles, rice, vegetables).

You can eat porridge for breakfast, there are usually two types - oatmeal (Out Porridge) and tsampa or champa (Tsampa, Champa) this is something like semolina made only from crushed and toasted barley grains, quite tasty, especially with sugar or honey (or even better with both at the same time). You can add nuts, dried fruits or a fresh apple to the porridge for an additional fee. They can also make muesli with milk.

Eggs are also often cooked for breakfast - omelette, scrambled eggs, simply boiled. Vegetables or cheese can be added to the omelet.

You can also order a couple of toasts with jam or honey or a sandwich (sandwich). They also offer pizza with different fillings, but this is rather not a pizza but a bread cake covered with all sorts of fillings (vegetables, fish, cheese, potatoes).

For dessert, you can order pancakes with apple or banana, apple pie, puddings.

Drinks while trekking in Nepal

Teas and other beverages. Usually, all common drinks are listed on the first page of the menu, and you can choose the volume (cup, small thermos 0.5l, medium 1-1.5l, large 1.5-2L). There is always regular black tea, coffee, hot chocolate, ginger tea, all kinds of instant tea drinks, instant fruit drinks - lemon, mango, apple, and traditional local teas (masala tea - with spices, tibetan tea - salty tea with butter, for an amateur). You can also buy soft drinks - cola, fanta, etc., juices. Sometimes there is a drink made of sea buckthorn syrup (SeaBuckThorn Juice) - very tasty, besides a lot of vitamin C.

Alcoholic drinks on trekking in Nepal

Homemade beer (Chyang, homemade beer) is a brew made from rice or wheat grains with aromatic spices, most often a white, slightly thick drink, quite tasty, but it strongly depends on the place.

Homemade wine (Raksy) is a weak moonshine, 20 degrees, usually served warm.

Apple cider is found in regions where apples are grown. Very tasty cider in the village of Marfa (Marpha) at the end of the track around Annapurna.

Apple brandy, like cider, is common in "apple" places.

Mustang Coffee is a very unusual drink - strong, hot, with fat and rice (but it also depends on the place), not to say that it is very tasty, but the locals claim that it warms and restores strength well.

Well, and all sorts of ordinary vodkas, rums and beer.

To make it easier for those who are planning a trip to Nepal for the first time (and not only) to plan their expenses, we decided to photograph the menu in several places. So that everyone can plan their diet. It is worth noting that the portions are usually quite large and you can eat one portion.

Preparing for trekking in Nepal, everything you need to know

This year we walked the track around Annapurna in Nepal and the track from Jiri to Everest Base Camp through the Gokyo Lakes and we want to share the nuances of these tracks.

Since we do no...