What is the food like in Everest Base Camp Trekking?

If you are planning to trek in Everest and aware of food available during the trek, this article is all about what is the food like in Everest Base Camp trekking. It gives you the clear idea of foods availble on the lodges and health tips to have the meal on right way.

Food in Everest Base Camp Trek

Our group recently completed the Everest Base Camp Trek, and I am informing everyone about what to eat on Everest. Given that practically every resource needed in the villages along the trekking route has to be carried in on the backs of an insanely strong Nepali or on a yak, it is very hard work. While you are trekking the food, don’t expect five-star, but it is much more satisfying and tasty than you could have ever expected. So, what should you eat and what should you avoid in the tea houses on the Everest Base Camp Trek.

The following are the must-haves and least favorites:

Drinks on the Everest Base Camp Trek

You probably know that you should avoid caffeine and alcohol while trekking at high altitudes, so what does that leave for your beverage choices? Most tea houses have various fruit-flavored powders that they mix with hot water. Hot lemon and orange are common, as is black tea, but hot mango is a rare treat. Hot water and sliced ginger or ginger with lemon is also usually an option, which is especially helpful if things aren’t quite right with your stomach or cough. Some of the trekkers can buy and take their own teas to drink on the trek, but they can’t drink in the tea houses because the tea houses are living only for this business in high altitude. When you realize that and you still have to pay for hot water to drink your own tea, the cost of tea is the same as tea, so it is not a good choice for any of them. Alcoholic drinks and smoking are allowed only on the way back from your final destinations.

Breakfast for Everest Trekking

Most tea houses offer a set breakfast, which usually consists of toast, eggs, potatoes, and tea or coffee. It gets pretty monotonous, but it's a decent meal to keep you trekking for a few hours, but if this is too much for you, you can choose from a variety of other options. There are many options on the menu, such as toast, mosley, or cornflakes with hot milk, or fried bread with jam or honey. In every tea house you can get freshly made dry bread chapati instead of toast and fried bread, which is a nice change of pace. Jam, butter, and honey are usually available, but butter is always frozen and impossible to spread. Porridge and rice pudding are other breakfast items, but the topping options become meager as you get to higher altitudes. Most of the items you will get in every tea house are fluffy and over an inch thick! The chocolate variety is not so chocolaty, but the apple version with honey on top is pretty good. One final breakfast tip: if you want your eggs over-easy or sunny-side up, ask them to cook as you like, with one side fried, or both sides fried, or sunny side up.

Soup with Sherpa Stew

Sherpa stew is available on every menu, and each tea house has its own unique recipe. In some places, it tastes like a spicy veggie and potato curry, and some tea houses can cook it like a simple veggie stew.

Nepali Food

For lunch and dinner entrees, your best option is to carb it up with potatoes, Momos, noodles, pasta, or rice. You can add vegetables (usually carrots, green vegetables, and cabbage), eggs, cheese, or any combination of these to your carb of choice. Yes, it gets old pretty fast, but there is some evidence that consuming carbohydrates can help you acclimatize faster. For something a little different, try the roasted potatoes with eggs on top for an added protein boost.

Everest Trekking needs Dal Baht Power for 24 hours.

If you’re really hungry, then it’s gotta be Dal Bhat: rice, lentil soup, curried potatoes with veggies, greens, and papad. The best part is You can get more and more of anything you want (except the papad) for free! As you go higher up in altitude, the seasonings become more bland and the variety of veggies less and less, but it is still decent for a quick fill that lasts.

What Not to Eat While Trekking in Everest?

You probably know that all meat has to be flown into Lukla and then carried up (without refrigeration) to its final destination, which can take many days. It is not possible to bring in 1 day because at the high altitude, no one can walk a long distance with too much weight. Therefore, it’s best to steer clear of meat on the trek. Overall, you will be pleasantly surprised by the food on the Everest Trekking especially when you consider that everything is cooked using propane that’s carried up many miles by big hairy yaks or Nepalis. The food gets pretty repetitive, and you will be especially happy to get back to a wider variety of fruits, vegetables, and other items in Kathmandu.