Sri Lanka Snacks - Hoppers - Egg Hoppers - String Hoppers

Some common staple foods apart from grain rice are dishes made from rice flour batter, served from breakfast time to late afternoon.

Typical Sri Lankan Breakfast - String Hoppers with Pol Sambol and Dhal Curry

Plain Hopper - We had plain hoppers, using them like an edible bowl with a dhal curry at tea-time once and 'egg hoppers' as a snack a few times. Sri Lankan street cafes make a crisp edged, bowl-shaped rice flour pancake with a thick bottom called 'Hoppers' or 'Appe'

We had plain Hoppers, using them like an edible bowl with a Dhal Curry at tea-time once and 'Egg Hoppers' as a snack a few times.

Hoppers are made from a fermenting batter of rice flour, coconut milk and a dash of palm toddy or pinch of dried yeast.

The batter of rice flour and coconut milk traditionally has toddy added for the typical sourish flavour and, more importantly, the fermentation which makes the centres full of little holes like a crumpet.

To make an Egg Hopper, the hopper batter is measured into the bowl-shaped pan and swirled around over the heat, coating the side right to the rim, the mixture is allowed to stiffen slightly, then a raw egg is poured into the base of the cooking Hopper. The egg is swirled around and allowed to cook in the heat of the Hopper, once the egg has cooked 'as you like it' then the Hopper is discharged from the pan. Add seasoning to the egg, roll the hopper with the egg inside and eat like a pancake. Yummy!

If toddy is not available then fresh or dried yeast could be used. Many cafes use yeast because toddy is expensive and not readily available these days. After leaving to ferment, the batter is swirled in the small high sided wok like pan.

Even without the traditional hopper-pan, it is possible to enjoy the unique texture and flavour using a small omelet pan.

We saw many types of Hopper such as: Plain Hoppers, Egg Hoppers, Milk Hoppers, and sweeter varieties called Paniapper and Vanduapa.

Closeup of Pol Sambol String Hoppers are made from rice flour made into little vermicelli like threads and steamed.

We had Pol Sambol with String Hoppers for breakfast once. The Pol Sambol was made from grated fresh coconut, raw onion and thinly sliced chili! Wow! Red hot, but very tasty, far too hot for most western palates.

If you want to keep your taste buds in tact stick to plain and egg hoppers.

We apologise for the repetition of some place or proper names with different spellings, but there is no definitive spelling translation of these words.

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