Food and Water During Manaslu Trek

While you are away from home, especially while wandering in the off-beaten trail of the Himalayas, your health should always be the topmost priority; your diet is extremely important. Thankfully, the Manaslu trek has an impressive range of options for healthy and organic food. This article includes everything you need to know about Manaslu trek food.

Where Should You Eat During The Manaslu Trek?

In cities like Kathmandu, people get to choose where they want to eat, i.e. you can pick any restaurant around the town for dining. However, on the trekking trails of Nepal, you must eat in the teahouse/hotel, where you sleep. There are no restaurants along the way, and you can eat breakfast/dinner wherever you stay. For lunch, we will be stopping at some teahouse in the mid-day, in between the routes.

A few years back, the Manaslu Circuit trek was among the most popular camping treks in Nepal. For the camping trek, your team had to carry everything needed to cook at a higher altitude. The porters would carry all cooking utensils and foods for the trek, and you could only eat whatever was carried from Kathmandu.

Even now, if you wish to go on a camping trek in Manaslu, this is the pattern to follow. However, on the teahouse trek, there are unlimited food options.

Types Of Food In Manaslu Trek

The latest built teahouses in Manaslu have a variety of food options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner during this trek. We have explained all Manaslu trek food below.

Breakfast

Tibetan bread: The most popular breakfast option is the local Tibetan bread, which is served with honey, jam, or peanut butter. Eggs and cheese can also be added.
Breakfast set: The breakfast set includes a Chapati sandwich or toast, a boiled egg or omelette, hash brown potatoes, and a hot drink.
Porridge: If you prefer a light breakfast, porridge, muesli, or cornflakes served with fruits or milk are recommended.
Paratha: This Indian delicacy for breakfast includes potato/ egg paratha
Soup: All vegetarian and non-vegetarian soups are available for breakfast, dinner, and lunch.
Egg: boiled/ fried/ vegetable egg and poached omelette along with garlic omelette is available
Pancake: Different kinds of pancakes served with honey or peanut butter

Lunch And Dinner

Thukpa & Thenduk: This vegetable/ non-veg noodle soup can be enjoyed during breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s served hot and warm- a good remedy for cold.
Curry and rice: The classic steamed rice with different curry
Pasta: pasta served with tomato sauce/ vegetable/ egg
Spring rolls: vegetable/ tuna/egg/ cheese spring roll
Pizza: All kinds of pizza
Macaroni: Veg/ non-veg/ and egg macaroni
Spaghetti: plain/veg /tuna spaghetti
Chowmein and MoMo of different kinds
Noodles of all kinds
Potato dish: finger chips, mashed potato, fried potato, chips chilly
Snacks: light snacks such as popcorn, pakora, pork fried, pork chilly, mushroom chilly, etc
Papad: different kinds of Indian Papad
Salad: Green/ Potato/ Russian/ Fruit/ Nepali salad

Other Food Items

Drinks and Beverages

Hot drink: The options for the hot drink are black/ milk/ Tibetan tea, ginger with honey, hot chocolate, and hot lemon. The healthier options are mint tea, ginger tea, and black coffee.
Soft drink: Canned juice, Red Bull, coke, Fanta, sprite
Hard Drinks: Firstly, we must say that alcoholic drinks during the high-altitude trek are highly discouraged. When your body is dehydrated, there’s a very high risk of altitude sickness. However, there are few options for alcohol available in the tea house. You can find beer and some international brands of drinks. Local raksi, Vodka, some whiskey, and Rum are also available.

Snacks

• Chips
• Chocolate bar
• Dry noodles
• Peanut

Deserts

• Rice/ chocolate/ custard pudding
• Apple/ pumpkin pie
• Apple fitter
• Curd

Local Food

• Gundruk pickle and curry (fermented spinach)
• Tsampa (made of barley and wheat flour)
• Thenthuk
• Rilduk (Sherpa and Tibetan traditional dumpling dish made from potato)
• Tibetan Mo: Mo (bigger sized Mo: Mo with thick dough)
• Dhindo
• Tibetan bread

Tips to Choose Healthy Food for a Trip

There’s a “never-go-wrong” food item on the menu of the Manaslu trek. And that’s typical Nepalese Dal Bhat. This combination of steamed rice, lentil soup, curry, and pickle has so much flavour and taste. Nepalese are addicted to this combination, and they eat this same food two times a day for all their life.

Most importantly, when you order Dal Bhat, you can always ask for more. It’s like a buffet system every day. Dal Bhat is rich in all kinds of carbohydrates, minerals, and proteins to keep you boosted all day long.

It’s also healthy for your stomach. However, it’s a high-calorie food, and if you are on a diet, you can have Dal Bhat for Lunch and something light for dinner in Manaslu food.

Local Foods Of Manaslu | Don’t Forget to Taste

• Manaslu’s food is highly influenced by traditional Tibetan culture. Along with Nepalese popular foods like Dumplings and Chowmein, Thukpa is very popular there. Warm veg and non-veg soup is also very common. Next, we shall also enjoy yak items such as yak meat, yak butter, and yak milk.
• Barley food items served along with the stews and curries are also very popular food in the Manaslu region.
• Butter tea is among the “must-haves” while you are trekking in the Himalayas. These high-energy drinks help the trekkers stay safe from extreme cold and altitude sickness.
• Among many interesting Manaslu trek foods in the Himalayas, Gundruk Dhindo carries the highest importance in Nepalese history. Ghandruk is a fermented green vegetable that is often enjoyed as a soup dish, and Dhindo is a porridge made from corn, millet, buckwheat, or barley. This diet is known to be long-lasting and more energetic than Dal Bhat. People in the highlands claim to have lived longer due to this organic combo.

Water Safety on the Manaslu Trail: Tips for Trekkers

Water is always the most important part of your diet. Especially while you are trekking at a higher altitude, keeping yourself hydrated is extremely important. Drinking about 3 litres of water daily keeps you safe from altitude sickness. If possible, we recommend drinking lukewarm water instead of cold water.

You can buy bottled water in the tea houses along the way. A bottle of water costs around $2-4, and when you buy 3 to 4 bottles each day, you will spend over $10-15 on water alone. On the other hand, you can easily save this cost by carrying your water bottle.

If not bottled water, from where can I get water?

In the lower regions like Jagat, the guest houses themselves allow you to refill the bottle. As you move higher, you can find plenty of natural springs/ taps where you can refill the bottle. However, you cannot drink this water directly, i.e., you need to add chlorine or iodine for purification.

You need to purify water with a water purification tablet at least 20 minutes before drinking. Also, it is vital to consult with your guide if the water from springs is safe for drinking or not. Boiling water before drinking could also be an option, but the teahouses might ask for some money for boiled water.

For regular trekkers, we recommend buying Steripen Ultra, which treats 1l of water in 90 seconds to make it completely germ-free. Other techniques, such as Lifestraw and Water-to-go, are also used by some travelers. Additionally, trekkers can bring their own water purification bottles.

NOTE: Himalayan Masters will provide water purification tablets for the trek as a complementary service.

Cost of Food In Manaslu Trek

Mostly, the food cost of the Manaslu trek is covered by the travel agency. When you get the Manaslu trek package, all three meals are provided by the agency, and you get to choose what you wanna eat. However, for independent trekkers, the food makes the highest price for the Manaslu Circuit trek.

Most of the raw materials for the food are carried by porters, animals, or helicopters. So, the food in the highlands is comparatively more expensive than in the cities.

The cost of breakfast ranges from $3 to $7. The lunch and dinner cost about $5 to $10. The price of tea and coffee comes somewhere between $0.5 to $2 per cup.

The food price is slightly lower in the lower region of Manaslu, i.e. around Soti Khola, Jagat, and Namrung. As you move higher, i.e. towards Samagaon, Samdo, and Dharapani, the price becomes higher.

In short, you will need $25 to $35 per day for the Manaslu Circuit trek food cost.

Some FAQs Related to Manaslu Trek Food

Is there any food we should carry during the Manaslu Circuit trek?

Although it is a popular teahouse trek, where you can get almost all kinds of foods, we suggest you bring some snacks like chocolate bars, energy drinks, instant foods, canned juices, cookies, dried fruits, etc., for the trek.

Who prepares the Manaslu trek food?

Usually, the food on the Manaslu trek is prepared by the local chef who is trained to cook the food. However, some of the good restaurants and popular teahouses hire professional chefs, and sometimes, the shop owners themselves work as chefs.

Is there any food we should avoid while trekking?

Other than the hard drinks, we also recommend avoiding meat at a higher altitude. Since all food items in Manaslu (including meat) are carried from lower regions and they do not have a proper refrigeration system in higher regions, the meat might not be fresh and can make you ill.

What kinds of food will we get in Kathmandu before the trek?

Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, has an impressive range of restaurants. Thamel bestows unlimited restaurants where you can dine on all kinds of international and Nepali cuisine. The cost of food in Kathmandu is usually not included in the Manaslu Circuit trek package.

Can I customize my meals during Manaslu Trek?

Yes, you can customize meal options during Manaslu Trek to some extent; for vegans, you can ask the teahouse owner to prepare food accordingly, and for non-veg, meat items can be requested according to availability.

Can I find pizza or burgers?

Even though it is not international standard, pizza or burgers with a local Nepali touch could be found at the teahouses or lodges in the lower region of Manaslu, like Samagaon or Jagat.