When we finalized our trek plans, we obviously were looking for a lot information. One thing that I read prominently is people lost a lot of weight on this trek. I wondered why? While looking for information, I found out that "Dal Bhat" was available easily on the trail. Knowing me, I was sure that I wont be able to walk happily with a full tummy. Omelets seemed to be another good option. But then other aspects of eating eggs like constipation (for me) were a cause of concern.
A friend had mentioned that one gets boiled potatoes as part of packed lunch. I am not a fan of packed lunch which usually cools down as becomes unchewable. Digestion is also a worry at high altitudes.
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| Please see the last paragraph for some information. |
I did carry Threptin biscuits, dates, some other dry fruits and trail mix of seeds for the trail. Dry fruits are good snacks for Cold weather but they cant substitute entire meal. Again, I thought it was best to leave the matter with our guide Ngima.
I am writing everything we had in detail because one we had a lot variety of food and two also that what effects it had on us while hiking.
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| Potatoes |
For our first lunch on the trail, we asked Ngima and Yangdi to serve us boiled potatoes in three different combinations. First being Cheese, then vegetables and third one was eggs. The quantity was way too much to satiate hunger of three Indian women. We could manage to finish only two plates of potatoes and had to apologize for wasting the third one. For dinner, we sticked to Dal Bhat.
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| Dal Bhat |
On our second day, we had breakfast of eggs and bread with tea & coffee. About 8 kilo meters from Ghat, we took our lunch break at Jorsalle. Ngima and girls asked for Dal Bhat and I asked for boiled vegetables. The dal was made of black gram and the lady took her sweet time to cook and we took our sweet time to have food. This entire affair lasted for close to two hours and I am pretty sure that we lost our momentum here with this undeserved rest. The climb after this break was disastrous as we took almost 6 hours to trek the remaining 6 kilo meters which was a complete uphill walk. When I reached our halt at Namche Bazar, I asked for bread and butter with my black coffee. We had Dal Bhat for dinner.
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| Plain Omelet |
Before starting from Namche Bazar, I again had omelet with black coffee and girls had same. Once we reached Khyanjungma, Ngima inquired if we wanted to take a break for lunch. With my experience on the day before, I kept saying lets finish today's trek and we did exactly that.
At Phungi Thenga, we had noodles (chowmein) and fried rice. This is where girls started having fried rice frequently. For dinner, I had asked for mushroom soup. However, the mushroom soup had some what nonveg flavor so I returned it and they brought me some noodles.
We started with our trek the next morning and I again opted for omelet with lemon ginger tea this time. Girls had bread butter for breakfast. On our way, right outside Tengboche Monastery, we had one more round of tea & coffee. I would ask for lemon powder in my coffee and Ngima would laugh at me. He kept saying I am one weird woman with weirdest choices.
Once we reached Pangboche we had egg fried rice and tea. For dinner I asked for egg RaRa Noodles. Girls again had fried rice. The morning wasn't good for me. So I decided to skip eggs for the day and asked for Boiled potatoes with black coffee and lemon powder. They had served 4 boiled potatoes with salt and pepper out of which I had 3 at the time of breakfast and had parceled one for the trail. I also skipped my dry fruits for the day and also stopped eating dates and dried figs from this day.
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| Mushroom RaRa Noodles |
When we reached Dingboche, we were already hungry and I wanted something that wouldn't have any spice that would agitate my bowels. So I asked for mushroom RaRa noodles, girls had Omelet and fried noodles. For dinner, I asked for potato cheese momos and girls again had veg fried rice.
The next day was our rest day cum acclimatization day. For breakfast, I had asked for hashbrown or roasty with cheese. My tummy was well now and I was ready to experiment. Lunch was fried rice and fried noodles to be shared between three of us. But the noodles were rather rather spicy, I decided to return some portion. For dinner, I had asked for potato cheese spring rolls and they brought me veg spring rolls. It was a big time turn off.
Before leaving for Lobuche, we had sumptuous breakfast of hashbrown with eggs and bread butter and omelet. We took a tea break at Thukla. I had soup and girls had bread butter mostly. Then we headed to Pyramid, some one and half kilometers ahead of Lobuche. By the time we reached here, it was almost dinner time. I had aloo paratha for dinner with girls again sharing veg fried rice.
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| Puri Tarkari |
Next day was our big day, so it meant having good breakfast. So I had bread butter with omelet with ginger lemon honey tea and girls followed the suit. We reached Gorakshep and had another round of coffee before heading to our dream destination EBC. At EBC we had peanut butter chikki and returned to Gorakshep for soup instead of lunch. Again at Pyramid, Amruta and I shared Aloo Paratha and fried rice for dinner. For breakfast, I had bread omelet and black coffee.
From Pyramid we had plan of going to Pangboche with a lunch break at Thukla or Pheriche. At Pheriche, I had French fried toast, Gauri for plain omelet and Amruta had asked for veg spring roll which came in the shape of a karanji.
For dinner at Pangboche, I had veg noodles soup which was a good portion. Breakfast was again Hashbrown, which I found to be slightly oily and thus asked her to parcel a small piece that I couldn't finish. Later, after climbing up from Phungi Thenga, at Khyanjungma we decided to have Omelet bread with butter.
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| Veg Thukpa |
When we reached Namche Bazar, it wasn't exactly dinner time so we had just tea and coffee. After freshening up, I was ready to experiement with food as tonight was the last night on high altitude. So I decided to have Thukpa and the girls had spring rolls and veg fried rice.
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| Tsampa, Momos |
The next morning, we had decided to go to Ghat at Ngima's place for lunch which he forgot to inform Yangdi, his wife. For breakfast I had porridge of Tsampa, the local barley. And the girls had momo and omelet.
Since, Ngima had forgotten about our lunch plans, we asked Yangdi to serve omelet and bread for us. Dinner was again Dal Bhat with some local subji and Moola ka achar - pickled radish. For breakfast, we had bread omelet and tea & coffee with milk.
Last day at Lukla, for lunch we had soup and fried rice and bread butter. In the evening Ngima insisted to try out eating Paani Puri which was more of Bengali puchka. For dinner, I had puri with aloo tarkari (this was offered and was off the menu) and girls had fried rice which they shared with Ngima.
Ngima and Surendra our porter most of the times had Dal Bhat. Most of the times, their Dal Bhat came with few pieces of chicken. However at Lukla, there was pork on their plates. Ngima tasted a piece and gave it away to Surendra.
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| Mula ka Achar |
I was diagnosed with multiple vitamin deficiencies in 2021 and with autoimmune thyroiditis in April 2023. Since then nutrition has been the base of good health. Whenever you are on EBC or any other trail or trek, make sure your food has variety of colors and textures which can bring different nutrients.
There are some soup packets and coffee sachets in the very first picture. Since our journey began from home in Pune and went down south to Colombo and initial itinerary involved plenty of road journey etc. The soup packets were expected to be part of that journey. I did carry couple of them for my trek but didn't use it. I also had some rock salt & black salt on me which I did take with water as my electrolytes.
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