Hoppers and string hoppers: the breakfast Sri Lanka does best

Crisp bowl-shaped hoppers with a soft egg centre, and delicate string-hopper nests with dhal and sambol. The island's definitive breakfast. A hopper (appa) is a bowl-shaped pancake of fermented rice flour and coconut milk, crisp and lacy at the rim, soft at the centre. Crack an egg in as it cooks and you have the egg hopper, best.

travelguides.lk · updated 24 Jan 2026 Sourced editorial

On the plate

A hopper (appa) is a bowl-shaped pancake of fermented rice flour and coconut milk, crisp and lacy at the rim, soft at the centre. Crack an egg in as it cooks and you have the egg hopper, best eaten hot with lunu miris chilli sambol spooned straight into the middle.

String hoppers (indi appa) are their gentler sibling: steamed nests of rice noodles stacked high, served with dhal, coconut sambol and often a mild potato or fish curry. Together they are the definitive Sri Lankan breakfast, and dinner in many homes.