Food in Everest Base Camp Trek

  • Last Updated on Sep 18, 2023

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Everest Region trekking is a paradise for all the adventure seekers in the world. It’s not easy but at the same time, it's not impossible as well. This trek challenges you from both the physical and mental aspects. The trekking journey is the one where trekkers have to adapt to the high altitude environment, adjust themselves to the accommodations and fooding of the mountains, and of course trek for prolonged hours during the day hiking from one destination to the next. 

In general, the hotels, teahouses, and lunch camps can easily serve you the normal meal for all the trekkers. The important point is, how to maintain your meal so that it helps you to adapt to the high altitude environment. Normally, it is important to understand certain aspects of the culture of the people living in the mountains. The Sherpa people, who are the prominent people residing in the mountain villages, follow their tradition and custom of not slaughtering animals. The Buddhist religion does not allow killing animals, and thus the entire area under the Sagarmatha National Park does not allow any animals to be harmed. As such, meat and eggs for the Everest Base Camp Trek are generally supplied from Kathmandu through helicopters, because the many villages along the trekking route to the Base Camp are located far away from any roads, getting the food supplies to the locations are done by planes. After that, the food is carried higher up in the mountains by porters, yaks, and other domesticated animals of the mountains. This is the main reason that leads to the higher prices of the food in high mountains. 

Here, we are providing some essential information about the foods during your Everest Base Camp Trekking. We mainly categorize the major food into three: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Breakfast

Your first breakfast in the mountain starts after a scenic and adventurous flight to Lukla. Out of three meals, breakfast is the most important among three of these three options. A good breakfast fuels you up and gets you ready for the whole day trek. On the normal tea house trek, breakfast is usually eaten at around 7 am-8 am. On the trail, most of the tea houses offer a hot breakfast usually consisting of toast items, eggs, potatoes, porridge, muesli, bread varieties, pancakes, and tea or coffee.

All these available options for breakfast are healthy and hygienic and fill your body with energy for a longer period of time. Also, the above-mentioned breakfast has a higher level of glucose in it, which maintains the higher level of glucose in your blood which is very essential for your trek. According to your taste and preferences, you can choose any of these items for your breakfast. 

Lunch

Lunch is considered as the main course of the meal for the whole day in Nepal, which is rich in carbohydrates and grains. It will give you enough energy during the whole day trek. We usually have lunch from around 12 pm to 1 pm. There are many beautiful lunch places on the way to base camp. 

The popular lunch item in the Everest Base Camp Trek is the traditional Nepali food, Dal Bhat Set ( which includes boiled rice, lentil soup, vegetables, spinach, and pickel). Besides this, noodles, dumplings (momo’s), pasta & macaroni, pizza, sandwich, spaghetti, and thukpa soup.

We have mentioned the topic of the item here, but you can get veg, non-veg along with other toppings like adding cheese, vegetables, eggs, etc, etc in most of the meals. The menu will vary and become scarce as you reach a higher altitude.

Dinner

Dinner is typically a communal affair in the Himalayas, so you will join many trekkers as you sit down around a large typical mountain heater and chat about the days. The normal meals for the dinner will be on offer, as well as some tea and snacks. Some people also like to make beer at a lower altitude during dinner time. Usually, dinner time is around 7 pm to 8 pm. 

Out of these above-mentioned menus: There are few foods that really help you in your trekking. This is good as a diet to maintain your body energy and temperature to sustain in high altitudes.

Sherpa Stew

Sherpa stew is on nearly every menu, and each tea house has its own unique recipe. In some places, it tasted like a spicy veggie curry, while in others it was more like a simple veggie stew. Normally, it's full of veggies (greens, vegetables, carrot, green beans, onion, garlic, and during the season you might get some spinach as well). Also, you can try omelet eggs and dry meat. 

Nepali Dal Bhat Set 

When you are in the mountains, this is the most typical and authentic food found around the entire trekking trail. This is made up of steamed rice, black lentil soup, green vegetables, tomato pickle, and spinach. They serve Nepali dal bhat in nonveg sets also, you can also take it with chicken curry. This set is full of carbohydrates and proteins which gives you a full day of energy during hiking. The best part of ordering Dal Bhat sets is, you can get a second of anything except (papad) for free.

Drink a lot of water during trekking

One of our guides always says, “eat more and drink more”. Yes, taking sufficient meals along with a lot of drinks is so important to adjust your body with the high altitude. Generally, high altitude means less oxygen in the air, which makes it difficult to breathe. This is the major problem for altitude sickness. 

So, make your body hydrated when you are in the mountains. Drink at least 4lit of liquid every day. This liquid may be tea or soup or water. 

While you are hiking on the trail, you will get tap water everywhere. But all are not safe to drink and hygenic. What you can do is, either bring chlorine tablets or a pocket water filter. Also, you can directly buy the mineral water on the way which costs around Rs 100 (in Lukla) to Rs 300 (Kala Patthar).

Besides these foods during the Everest Base Camp trek, when you’ll be in Kathmandu and other city areas in Nepal, you can explore other foods in the city. Nepal is a hub for the diverse food tastes in the world. If you are craving different food tastes, then you must come to Nepal once in your lifetime. For more details regarding the Nepal treks and tours, please contact us anytime. 

Sneha Shree Gupta

Sneha Shree Gupta

Sneha has been working in the travel industry for more than three years. While working closely with active climbers and mountaineers, she has been able to collect and write very informative articles. With multiple years of experience, she intends to offer reliable information to travellers from all around the globe.