A fantastic lunch option for backpacking

Indian snacks to the rescue

My group is preparing our food buckets to ship out for our upcoming JMT section hike. Last weekend at Ten Lakes, we hiked with Niraj Mahadev, an ultra-runner. He suggested we look at Bhakri, an Indian snack for lunch / snack options.

You can find these in the Indian grocery stores. Earlier, one of my other friends, Santha, had mentioned this as an alternative to Khakra. I was considering taking Khakra for lunch, along with a bar for lunch, but Khakra is fragile, thin and disintegrates.

Bhakri is a fantastic flat bread replacement for Khakra. It weighs about an oz per bread, is thick enough to not disintegrate and each bread is about 130-140 calories. Three numbers of this plus a bar should be a very satisfying lunch. It also comes in various flavors and is ridiculously cheap. It is $1.59 for a pack of seven!. Goodness.

The packaging itself is vacuum sealed aluminum foil and should last for a long time. I picked up four of these for my thirteen day hike from Rush Creek to South Lake. It comes in plain, Jeera (cumin), Masala (generic Indian spice mix) and Coriander and Chili among others.

Some Indian stores carry a “fresh” version of this made locally, but not sure if they would last, I went with the packaged ones from "Deep” brand.

I found these at Amazon as well, for a slight premium but ridiculous shipping charges. You are better off going to a Indian grocery store instead (ask the counter clerk and show them the pictures).

As always, please try these at home before you carry them on the trail and make sure you like them.