There’s plenty of it and often our clients say that food on trek is even better than meals in hotels. Certainly it is important to eat and drink as much as possible on trek, as you will be using a lot of calories each day.

Menus vary from one country to another, but a typical day’s meals would be as follows:

Breakfast – cereals or porridge, eggs to order – usually scrambled eggs or fried eggs, toast or chapatis, honey or peanut butter, tea or coffee. Sometimes tinned bacon or sausage.

Lunch – in many regions the trek cook will provide a simple hot meal for lunch if there is water at the lunch stop for cooking. This could be, noodles/potatoes, curry, salad, rice and dhal, fried tinned meat and vegetables, chapatis or bread, tea or coffee/fruit juices. Sometimes when crossing high passes or drier regions a packed lunch will be provided which may consist of some of the following: bread and jam sandwiches, chapatis, chicken, boiled eggs, oranges or apples, chocolate, cartons of juice. Arriving in to camp – usually there will be tea and biscuits, sometimes cake if available.

Evening meal – popcorn/popodums, then soup followed by a rice based dish, sometimes a mild curry or stew with several separate vegetable dishes to accompany, fresh or tinned fruit, tea or coffee or hot chocolate. And sometimes a bottle of local alcoholic beverage is offered. Again typically dishes will not be overly hot and spicy, but meals can be made spicier by adding dried or fresh chillies from a separate bowl. Condiments often include salt and pepper, tomato ketchup, chutney, brown sauce or hot chilli paste.

It is amazing what the trek cooks can produce on occasions. With quite basic equipment they manage to produce very good cakes with icing, apple tarts, pizzas, fried chips, spaghetti, pasta and we have even known them to produce jelly. On the majority of treks most of the food is carried in from the road head, and depending on the area, this may be supplemented by the trek cook/sirdar purchasing additional vegetables in villages.

It should be understood that on long strenuous treks some of the food items would not last the whole distance, such as eggs, and fresh vegetables like cabbage or cauliflower. The cooks are well versed in producing a variety of menus and will almost always be able to accommodate specific requests. The most common of course is chips, chips and more chips.

Meat occasionally is taken on trek ‘on the hoof’, and occasionally chickens might be purchased on route. In most countries tinned meats/sardines are carried to supplement fresh meat. Although trekking companies provide ‘snacks’ such as boiled sweets or chocolate bars we highly recommend that trekkers bring their own little supply of ‘goodies’. On our ‘off-the-beaten track’ treks, where there is a European leader present, Himalayan Horizons also provide a variety of ‘goodies’ such as chocolate bars, nuts and raisins, fruit bars or perhaps a variety of ‘treats’ such as cheesecake mixes, fruit cake, ground coffee or jars of marmite or jams.

Whilst we do not advocate consumption of huge quantities of alcohol on trek many people like to have the odd ‘wee dram’ in the evening in the mess tent. We suggest the purchase of half bottles of duty free spirits in plastic bottles. Drinking does not aid acclimatisation! Only when you are acclimatised should you consider drinking alcohol. Very often local spirits such as Rakshi or Chang are available for purchase in local villages – they are acquired tastes! Invariably a source of these ‘interesting’ liquids is discovered for the end of trek parties.

The trek cooks and assistants are trained to prepare the food hygienically and antiseptic water is provided for you to wash your hands before mealtimes. Special diets Vegetarians can be catered for quite easily. Other special diets can be accommodated with plenty of advance notice.