Dishes · A classic of Sri Lankan

Hoppers

Also Appa, Aappa, Egg hoppers

Bowl-shaped pancakes of fermented rice flour and coconut milk, crisp and lacy at the edge and soft at the base, often with an egg cooked inside.

What makes it hoppers

  • Rice flour and coconut milk, fermented.
  • A curved pan, swirled, then covered so the centre steams.
  • Crisp, golden edges; a soft, spongy base.
  • An egg cracked into the middle for egg hoppers.

Where it comes from

Hoppers — appa in Sinhala, appam in Tamil — are made in a small, deep pan swirled so the batter climbs the sides and sets thin as lace. The batter is rice flour and coconut milk, fermented overnight, traditionally with toddy and now more often with yeast. Kerala's appam is a close cousin.

They're eaten in the morning or the evening, a stack at a time, with lunu miris — a paste of chilli, onion and lime — or seeni sambol and a curry.

How it varies

Egg hopper
An egg set in the hollow — the favourite.
Milk hopper
Thick coconut milk spooned into the centre, sometimes sweetened.
Honey hopper
With kithul treacle poured into the middle.

Be the first here

Start your own hoppers
No one here has made hoppers yet. Start it as v1, and every version after is an experiment the next cook can learn from.

Near it

Sri LankanString hoppersFine threads of rice-flour dough pressed into small nests and steamed, eaten with a thin coconut gravy and pol sambol.No one here has made it yetSri LankanPol sambolFresh grated coconut rubbed with chilli, red onion, Maldive fish, lime and salt until pink and fragrant.No one here has made it yetSouth IndianAppam and stewBowl-shaped rice pancakes, lacy at the edge and soft in the middle, with a mild stew of coconut milk, whole spices and potato.No one here has made it yet