The Lotus Bakery on the Pemayangtse Road

If you are going to Pemayangtse from Pelling , you find the Lotus Bakery on the left of the road . A ramshackle hut ,patched with tarpaulin , woven reed sheets with industrial ovens behind the counter ,it houses the most amazing bakery .

Run by the Muyal Liang trust , the proceeds from the bakery are used to provide free education to the children of Sikkim . In Sikkim there is a tremendous emphasis on education and throughout the day one comes across groups of children either going to or coming back from school .

You have a choice of alfresco or indoors . The cafe has a cement floor and a short plastered wall topped with a bamboo frame , set with square uncurtained windows through which sunlight streams in . The walls are a patchwork of yellow and blue tarpaulin and plastic and sheets woven out bamboo. You wait at a rickety wooden table on blue plastic stools and breathe in the warm yeasty , cinammony , chocolatey smell of baking ,

while the girls rush around getting the tea ready. The tea is not important , the food is .

But nevertheless you order lemon tea

Staffed by a set of young girls and one man , the bakery serves the most delicious apple rolls , yeasty bread , Danish pastries , cinnamon rolls , apple pie with the thinnest flakiest crust imaginable ,chocolate sponge , buttery biscuits studded with nuts and raisins and cream rolls and buns oozing fresh cream . lemon tarts with the soft, fresh lemon butter - delectable ! I have no pictures of the food because it went down so fast !

And if you are lucky the fat tabby who lives off the fat of the cafe , literally , might come and sit at your feet , hoping for a few crumbs from the table !