Food is one of the reasons that keeps everyone pedaling, and for good reason. Here Richard and Colleen arrive at campsite at the end of a long day. An afternoon snack of freshly cooked chilli bites and tea await them, soon to be followed by a dinner that is impossible to beat at this altitude or any other for that matter. For all 8 nights of camping, our fantastic cook Sundar managed to whip up no less than seven dishes every night. Not once was any of them repeated. My favourite was the Indian; Matter paneer, makni dal; paneer tikka masala as seen above Spoiled for choice. I could never decide what it was I wanted on my plate. Here I have taken a brinjal curry, palak paneer (spinach and cheese), matter paneer (pea & cheese) and aloo jeera (cumin potatoes) with chapatis and rice. Still another 3 choices to go, inevitably I would eat all seven! Amazingly all meals are freshly prepared daily. There are no fridges and no quick stop supermarkets to quickly nip into. All our fresh veg were stored in crates and lasted the 9 days. One night it was Italian: lasagne, pesto pasta, pasta napoli, fresh salad, olives and pizza, no ovens to be seen, all prepared at 4000m on a kerosene stove. Cakes rose to the occasion and were baked at 4600m, again no oven! What will it be tonight? Veg bake, stir fried mushrooms, cauliflower cheese, stuffed peppers, pasta, sweet potato and hot chips! As close as we ever got to a supermarket, yet our super Sundar, was so well organised we never ran out of anything. Then there was Race Food. Wedgewood, our famous nougat family run business in Howick kindly supplied us with heaps of Race Food for those moments when Sundar wasn’t around to ply us with his amazing meals. Race Food did the trick – simple and delicious stuff www.wedgewood.co.za That’s vege fried rice, vege burgers, vege fried rice, chinese pepper & brinjal, roast potatoes and sweet and sour vege. The meat-eaters all confessed that if they could eat like this every night being vegetarian wouldn’t be a problem! Richard tucking into a chocolate banana pie. Sundar, the ‘Jamie Oliver’ of the Himalayas. Now, this would be a cooking channel series that would be hard to beat: ‘Cooking at no less than 3000m!’
Pedaling has been natural to me since the tender age of three. Cycling is practical, fun, it gets you to the corner café, across countries, continents, keeps you fit and is by far the most efficient and environmentally friendly transport option around, being virtually carbon neutral.
I live in Howick, KwaZulu-Natal which is great cycling country, within 10 minutes I can be bouncing along some of the finest single tracks in the province.
My mouth is simply watering - the food looked simply delish!
Oh, Bridg, you make me want to get on my bicycle! With suppers like this to look forward to, even I might conquer the mountains - or perhaps not.
Yum, Yum and Yum again!! And it looks vegetarian - is it, Bridget? Hope you've got the recipes ol' gal! Lotsa Patricia
Oh yes all vegetarian, no scrap of any being in there! ;-)