Hoppers and String Hoppers: A Simple Guide to the Sri Lankan Breakfast

Hoppers vs string hoppers explained, plus the closest dishes on our Scarborough menu: puttu, roast bread and String Hopper Biryani.

Hoppers and string hoppers are the backbone of a Sri Lankan breakfast. Quick honest note: Blessed Kitchen does not make plain hoppers or string hoppers. Here is how the two dishes differ, and what we make that comes closest.

Hoppers

Hoppers (appa) are made from a fermented batter of rice flour and coconut milk, swirled in a small curved pan. The result is a bowl with crisp, lacy walls and a soft, spongy base. Add an egg and you have an egg hopper; add extra coconut milk and you get a sweeter milk hopper.

String hoppers

String hoppers (idiyappam) start with rice-flour dough pressed through a mould into thin noodles, piled into small nests and steamed. They are soft and light and made to soak up gravy, usually kiri hodi (a mild coconut gravy), dhal and pol sambol.

How to eat them

With your hands, mixing each bite with curry and sambol. A typical home breakfast has a stack of string hoppers or a few hoppers, a curry, a coconut gravy and a sambol on the table.

The closest dishes on our menu

  • Puttu Mixed ($20): steamed rice flour layered with coconut, with your choice of meat, dhal curry and coconut sambol. The closest thing to hoppers on our menu.
  • Roast Bread ($13) with coconut sambal and egg-milk curry.
  • Coconut Roti ($12) with beef curry and dhal.
  • Jaffna Moor Puttu and Keerai Puttu, available on request.
  • String Hopper Biryani Combo ($29 per person, 20 minimum) for groups.

Our String Hopper Biryani is built on string hoppers and is one of the dishes we are proudest of for events.

How to order

Everything we cook is zabihah halal.

A Sri Lankan breakfast spread from what we actually make

Since we do not make hoppers or plain string hoppers, here is how to put together a weekend breakfast table from our menu that still feels like home.

A brunch for six

  • 2 Puttu Mixed at $20 = $40
  • 2 Roast Bread at $13 = $26
  • 2 Coconut Roti at $12 = $24

That is $90 before tax. You get puttu with meat, dhal and coconut sambol, roast bread with egg-milk curry, and coconut roti with beef curry and dhal. Pick it up on Saturday or Sunday, or order through our direct ordering page.

How to eat puttu if you are used to hoppers

Puttu comes as a steamed cylinder or mound. Break it up with your fingers, then pour curry or dhal over a small section and mix it in, the same way you would tear a string hopper nest into gravy. Some families also eat puttu sweet, with banana and a little sugar. Keerai Puttu, made with greens, is available on request.

How roast bread and coconut roti compare

Roast bread is soft inside with a crisp outside, and works well dipped in egg-milk curry, much like a milk hopper's soft centre. Coconut roti is denser, with grated coconut worked into the dough, and it holds up to a stronger curry like beef. If you miss egg hoppers, roast bread with egg-milk curry is the nearest match on our menu.

If you want to make hoppers yourself

Hoppers need a small, deep, curved pan, often called an appachatti, and a rice flour and coconut milk batter that is usually left to ferment overnight. The trick is to swirl the batter up the sides quickly and cover the pan so the centre steams. Expect the first few to be practice. String hoppers need a press and a steamer tray, and they are quicker to make in a group with one person pressing and one steaming.

Questions about hoppers we get

Will you make hoppers for a catering order?

No. For groups of 20 or more, the String Hopper Biryani Combo ($29 per person) is the closest catering option, served with chicken korma, eggplant mojo, pineapple curry, yogurt sambal and maasi sambal.

Is puttu spicy?

Puttu itself is plain. The heat comes from the curry and sambol. See puttu in Scarborough and roast bread and coconut roti.