Food in Spiti/Kinnaur

azsizsi

I'm planning to travel in Spiti and Kinnaur in July and August and I'd love to hear from someone who has travelled there about what kind of food is available in dhabas/restaurants/hotels.

I have coeliac disease and can't eat anything with wheat or barley. How hard will it be (particularly in Spiti) to find food that doesn't involve bread or noodles? Do many places serve rice?

I've read that millet and buckwheat are grown in Spiti. I can eat both of these so I'm curious about how they are used in cooking.

Thanks!
Joe

Yogesh Sarkar

If you can eat rice then you should be fine, barring breakfast time, when most of the places will have paranthas (made from wheat) and noodles. Of course you can ask a restaurant owner to prepare rice for you, at the max you will have to wait a little longer.

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voyager61

Hi! In most places you will NOT find rice for breakfast,so you will have to organize something yourself. In restaurants and dhabas you don't find millet and buckwheat,perhaps people use them at home,but not on a large scale for sure.

AvidTrekker

Carry packets of rice noodles and the restaurant owner will gladly heat it up for you [for a charge, naturally]

As already stated above, lunch and dinner is for rice. Breakfast will be eggs. [paraanthaas, tho avlble, are wheat based]
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azsizsi

Thanks everyone. It sounds like the food situation won't be too different from other places in India. I was worried that people in Spiti might only eat bread and noodles as staples. If I can get eggs at breakfast and something with rice at other meals then I'm fine

On a completely different note - I'm also curious about how much Hindi people in Spiti speak? Since I'm completely ignorant of the local language(s?), is it more useful to speak in English or Hindi?

Yogesh Sarkar

Almost every where you go in Spiti, every one knows and speaks Hindi

machadinha

I don't know if and how this compares but there's this decent thread on food allergies, maybe you'll find it helpful: What we learned about allergies in India.

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azsizsi

Thanks Yogesh, that's good news. I guess I've been overestimating how remote and isolated Spiti is.

Thanks Machadinha. I'm so impressed that they still made the effor to travel with all those allergies! Luckily, coeliac is an autoimmune disease rather than an allergy. The worst that can happen if I eat wheat is several months of diarrhea - not pretty but infinitely preferable to anaphylactic shock!

rishabh6296

In Kinnaur last november,we could get anything thing we wanted in slightly bigger places like Sangla,recong peo and Kalpa,in smaller places like chitkul,rakcham etc. carry rice noodles it would be good.