The Annapurna Sanctuary trek in Nepal isn’t an adventure for the faint hearted (or weak kneed). The terrain boasts steep climbs up and precarious paths down that’ll make you question if the concept of “flat” even exists. Mother Nature fans the flame with bouts of hail, snow, rain, and fog. Not to mention you are in high altitude conditions as you creep your way towards Annapurna Base Camp, which is a cheeky 4,130 meters (13,550 feet) above sea level.
The hard work is rewarded with breathtaking vistas of some of the tallest, most awe-inspiring mountains in the world. Pretty fair trade off if you ask me…
To tackle such a feat, one needs strong legs, an upbeat morale, and plenty of food to fuel to journey.
And, of course, it’s my Frugal Foodie obligation to give you the rundown of the trekking food in the Nepal so you can know what to expect.
First things first… where do you even get your trekking food in Nepal?!
The mountain regions in Nepal are peppered with “tea houses” for travelers. These are simple accommodations that have private rooms with beds, communal toilets and showers, and a large common space for eating and socializing. The bedrooms don’t have any source of heat (so bring a sleeping bag!) But many of the common rooms will have a wood fired heater. We ate dinner and breakfast at each tea house we stayed at, and had lunch at various tea houses along the way.
I’ll talk more about the accommodations in another post that will review the entire experience.
What are the different types of trekking food in Nepal you can expect to chow down on?
Breakfast
The Options:
Breakfast options at the tea houses include eggs, porridge, muesli, different types of pancakes, fried potatoes, and various combinations of everything listed above.
My Go-To:
Each menu had some sort of “breakfast set” on offer that included eggs, potatoes, toast or gurung bread, and coffee or tea. What is gurung bread you may ask? It’s simply a fried bread that you can slather in honey. It’s like eating a donut for breakfast, and it became my foodie obsession of the trip.
This breakfast fuels the body with protein, some fat, and plenty of easily digestible carbs, making it ideal trekking food in Nepal. In fact, I even got it for dinner a couple times.
Popular Breakfast Choices Amongst the Group:
Pancakes, gurung bread, porridge, and various versions of eggs were common breakfast orders in the group.
Tips and Tricks
A group member brought a jar of peanut butter that she added to her porridge, which I thought was genius. For future treks, this is a hack I will most certainly follow. Another item I will bring for future treks is my Aeropress coffee maker. For a caffeine addiction as severe as mine, the instant Nescafe packets didn’t cut it.
Lunch and Dinner:
The Options:
Each tea house menu had more or less the same options: dal bhat, various versions of fried rice, fried noodles, various versions of potato, a few types of momo, spring rolls, a few types of soup, and Western options like pasta and pizza that usually no one was bold enough to try.
My Go-Tos:
Dal Bhat is the classic Nepalese meal that includes rice and dal (lentil soup) along with a vegetable curry, a cooked green, a pickled item, a spicy sauce, and a papadum. What makes dal bhat excellent trekking food in Nepal is the fact that it’s unlimited. Someone will keep refilling each component of the dal bhat until you give the red light.
I ate quite a few dal bhats, but my most common order was egg fried rice with veggies. The higher altitude severely blunted my appetitive (learn about the symptoms of altitude sickness HERE), and egg fried rice with veggies was the easiest thing for me to stomach to get calories in.
On the back end of the trek, I discovered thupka, which is a Tibetan noodle soup. On the cold nights it warmed me up and it was super easy on my stomach and digestive system. If I had discovered it earlier, it would have likely been my most ordered trekking food in Nepal!
Population Choices in the Group:
At least one potato rosti with cheese or egg was ordered a meal. Potato rosti is essentially a potato pancake that’s made of potato, some sort of binding agent, and whatever veggies and spices the chef has on hand. I ordered it twice. Once (pictured below left) it was, shall we say, uninspiring. The second time (pictured below right) at Annapurna Base Camp it was absolutely delicious with a delightful crispiness.
Egg fried noodles with veggies was super popular in the group. Personally, it was a bit too greasy for my stomach to handle.
One day Jeremy ordered spring rolls, which sparked a trend. Mind you, these aren’t just any spring rolls. They are like what you’d get if an empanada, pasty, and spring roll had a baby. They are huge and doughy with a sautéed cabbage filling and some chips (French fries if you’re America) on the side.
Momo are a Himalayan dumpling, and a quintessential dish of the region. I’m a huge fan of momo, and have even done a couple Jackson Heights momo crawls in NYC. However, veggie momo can be a bit boring. While people would have momo here and there, they weren’t nearly as popular as I expected.
Let’s Talk Cost.
The Annapurna region is remote with very limited road access. This means that most supplies need to be transported via foot or donkey. Lugging pounds upon pounds of supplies up and down mountains ain’t free. As a result, food is much more expensive at the tea houses than in Kathmandu, and it gets more expensive as you get further from road access.
For example, the set breakfast at the first couple tea houses was around 650NPR/$4.73USD. At base camp, the same breakfast set was 1050NPR/$7.64USD.
Depending on what you ordered, lunch and dinner ranged from 500NPR to 1000NPR per dish ($3.50-$7.21 USD). Which is expensive compared to city prices, but still extremely affordable for a Western traveler.
As the trek progressed, my diligence in tracking our spending went down. But I estimate that over the 10 days of trekking (not including meals in Pakhara) we spent around $15 USD per day per person on food, tea, and water.
Let’s Talk Meat.
At the beginning of the trek, our guide said to never order meat dishes in the mountains. As mentioned, most supplies are transported via donkey and human. Raw meat that’s unrefrigerated for who knows how many days is a recipe for a foodborn illness. We avoided meat accordingly.
Let’s Talk Water.
Properly hydrating is important for any physical activity, but it’s critical in high altitude conditions. As you climb higher, the body loses more water due to dryer air, an increased need to urinate, and more sweat and rapid breathing due to the body needing to work harder. Being dehydrated coupled with symptoms induced from high altitude conditions is a recipe for feeling horrible and getting serious altitude sickness.
For the first 3 days, Jeremy and I bought bottled water, which I highly regret. Reason 1 being each bottle was 150-200NPR compared to just 40 NPR back in the cities, meaning a lot of unnesary spending. Reason 2 being pollution and garbage is a big issue in Nepal, and buying bottled water just exacerabates the problem.
After 3 days, we switched to using water purification tablets. We used THESE, but everyone in the group had different types of tablets and no one got sick. Once you get into the Annapurna conservation area, no plastic water bottles are even available to purchase. So having the tablets is absolutely essential.
Pro Tip 1:
Jeremy and I had water bladders, which I highly highly recommend because it made it super easy to keep the fluid intake up. Each night we’d purify water in our water bottles, then transfer the clean water to our bladders accordingly.
Pro Tip 2:
I highly recommend getting electrolyte tablets to aid in staying hydrated. Plus, they help mask the taste of the water purification tablets!
Let’s Talk Snacks.
When you’re trekking up and down mountains for 7 hours a day, having snacks on hand is a wise idea for staying fueled. The tea houses have Almond Joys, Snickers, Kit Kats and digestive biscuits for sale. But, like everything else, they get more and more expensive as you go. I highly recommend buying snacks in Pokhara or Kathmandu before your trek begins.
Jeremy and I loaded up on granola bars, a few packages of Oreo-like cookies, and a couple chocolate bars. We discovered the brand Snack On, which makes super delicious granola bars that are worth stock piling.
Let’s Spill the Tea…
One of the biggest discoveries of the trek was lemon ginger tea with honey. It starts with boiling ginger, then you add a generous squeeze of lemon and honey to taste. Health gurus online rattle on about all the various health benefits this beverage has. “Wellness” aside, it’s a cozy drink that helps you stay warm and hydrated with an added kick of sugar to help you tackle that next looming set of stairs.
Tips and Tricks for Not Getting Sick
Getting a food or water born illness likely means your trek will be over. Luckily, no one in our group of 15 got sick, which, according to our guides, is extremely rare.
Here are some tips to help you stay healthy too:
- Never drink water from the tap. The guides and porters do it, but that doesn’t mean you can.
- Don’t eat meat.
- Wash your hands frequently.
- Avoid raw vegetables, fruits with skin, and any other type of food item that may have been washed with tap water.
There you have it! An in-depth look at what trekking food in Nepal really looks like!
I must admit that by the end we were all salivating over all the types of food we would eat when the trek was over. However, it got the job done in successfully fueling the adventure, which was truly one for the books.
