Food on the Annapurna Circuit...

The literal translation of "Annapurna" in Sanskrit is "full of food"... but more often translated as "goddess of harvest" (I like the literal meaning more). And despite what we had heard from others that had done the hike several years back, the food was quite excellent. I must conclude that trail cuisine has been revamped.

Start off with some brekky... and not so exciting foods.

Tsampa porridge... the food of the sherpas, and sometimes called the national food of Tibet (Sean loved this stuff... we thought it tasted like soggy cardboard).


Sea-buckthorn juice...


... was found only on few sections of the trail... very acidic but is supposed to have lots of anti-oxidants as well as 12x the amount of Vitamin C compared to oranges.


All places serve Dhal Bat, fried rice, and pasta. The Dhal Bat quality differs significantly from location to location... while the fried rice remained consistently good.


Now to the more specialized dishes... On the "west side" pizzas were also common... served very thin... but surprisingly quite tasty.


In Chhomrong... you have to get the enchilada... I was very skeptical when Kim ordered it, but it was quite amazing. This was my main motivator for getting up 100s of stairs that you have to climb to get here...


An attempt at "Okonomiyaki" on the circuit! Yeah, not quite up to Lopez's snuff... actually it was pretty bad.


Ginger potatoes... mmm... I think this was in Muktinath.


We did carry our own Tapatio sauce (to heed some of the warnings about the food on the trail) ... but hot sauce and condiments are found at most places on the trail... though we found it interesting that the second ingredient for this green chili sauce was potato.


You may be surprised to find this outside of the Santa Cruz pier or Scotland...


But this is what they call a "Twix Roll" (they also have Snickers or Mars Rolls as well). This, my friends... is a deep fried twix bar. And after 10 hours of hiking, how can you feel guilty. If you ask me, the hike is worth every step just for this amazing reward...


Chocolate Pudding... served at most locations... also very good, as Durbo would say.