Food

Food is always an important and interesting part of travelling and during the last 2 weeks we have sampled a wide range of Nepalese tea house food.  Some things were ordered again and again and others were memorable for all the wrong reasons.

One of our best meals was Dhal Bhaat, which is usually a safe option as it's the national meal and the guides, porters and locals eat it twice a day.  We had great Dhal Bhaat at Yala Base camp cooked by our trip cook (who went with the climbers over the Ganja La and received numerous complements about the quality of the food throughout the trip) and at Shing Gompa where lunch took about 3 hours so Dhal Bhaat seemed the best way to eat before midnight.  Dhal Bhaat is a bottomless plate that comes with a huge pile of rice (Bhaat), a bowl of lentils (Dhal), some spicy bits and some token veges. 

Chipati, Tibetan bread (like chipati but thicker and fluffier), spring rolls, rolls omelet, porridge and muesli were all reliable and had a unique spelling on each menu. 

Many of the items on the menu are western foods and the names need to be taken with a grain of salt.  We tried a rage of pizzas, some of which were Tibetan bread base and others with something like a pasta base.  All were interesting, not all were worth repeating.  The noodle soups are also worth a mention as a lunch staple.

Snicker momo was an interesting mix of western and local with a snicker bar wrapped in a sweet pastry turnover and fried.  They were a popular dessert, along with Apple pie - also fried.  Apple fritters made a nice change once in a while although the first time we ordered apple fritters were given Tibetan bread with ketchup and a couple of pieces of apple - so it was different…

Potato and rice were the staples of the menu, and roast and fried (with lots of garlic) were another favourite.  Apart from the last night when we had a taste of local chicken curry it was an entirely vegetarian trip.  

After 2 weeks in the hills we arrived back in Kathmandu and Jiban took us out to the Rumdoodle.  Carrots, green beans and cauliflower have never been so appealing after 2 weeks of cabbage and spinach as the token vegetables.  The steak was divine and the butter chicken looked really good. 

All in all some really good food and a really good trip.

- Hazel