Sri Lankan Hoppers in Toronto: What They Are and What to Try at Blessed Kitchen

A guide to Sri Lankan hoppers, and an honest note: we do not make them. Here is what to try at our Scarborough kitchen instead.

Hoppers, Toronto's underrated Sri Lankan dish

Hoppers (appa) are one of the first things Sri Lankans miss when they move abroad. To be straight with you: Blessed Kitchen does not make hoppers. This guide explains the dish and points you to what we do cook in Scarborough.

The main types

  • Plain hopper: a bowl-shaped pancake of fermented rice flour and coconut milk, crisp and lacy at the edge, soft in the middle.
  • Egg hopper: the same, with an egg cooked into the centre.
  • Milk hopper: sweeter, made with extra coconut milk.
  • String hoppers (idiyappam): a different dish, steamed nests of rice-flour noodles.

How to eat hoppers

Tear off the crisp edge, dip it into lunu miris (red onion and chilli sambol) or a curry, and save the soft centre for last. Hoppers are a breakfast or dinner food and are best eaten straight out of the pan.

What to try at Blessed Kitchen instead

  • 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 (roughly $20 to $30 per person (quoted on menu and headcount), 20 minimum) for groups.

More on this in our Sri Lankan hoppers page and our halal Sri Lankan breakfast guide.

Order options

Everything we cook is HMA-certified halal.

Why hoppers are so hard to find catered

Hoppers are a dish of the moment. Each one is cooked on its own in a small, deep, rounded pan, and the crisp edge that makes a hopper worth eating starts to soften within minutes. That is why you see them made fresh at a stall or by an aunty at the stove, and why they are rarely sold in trays. At an event, hoppers really need someone cooking them live, one pan at a time. Our catering is drop-off or pickup with no cooking stations, which is one more reason we do not make them.

Hoppers and string hoppers are not the same thing

The names confuse people. Hoppers (appa) are a fermented batter cooked into a bowl shape. String hoppers (idiyappam) are rice-flour dough pressed into thin strands and steamed in small nests. We do not make plain string hoppers either. What we do make is the String Hopper Biryani Combo, roughly $20 to $30 per person (quoted on menu and headcount) with a 20-person minimum: string hoppers tossed biryani-style, served with chicken korma, eggplant mojo, pineapple curry, yogurt sambal and maasi sambal. It is a party dish, not a breakfast plate.

If you want to try hoppers at home

Hoppers are very doable in a home kitchen with a little patience:

  • You need a hopper pan, a small curved non-stick pan with a lid. South Asian grocery stores in Scarborough usually stock them.
  • The batter is rice flour and coconut milk, fermented overnight. In a cold Toronto kitchen, give it a warm spot, like an oven with only the light on.
  • Swirl a ladle of batter around the pan so it climbs the sides, cover, and cook until the edges brown.
  • For an egg hopper, crack an egg into the centre straight after swirling.

Then do what many families do: make the hoppers yourself and order the curry. A beef curry, mutton curry or potato milk curry from our kitchen (all on request) goes with hoppers the way it goes with puttu.

A weekend breakfast-style order instead

For two people: one Puttu Mixed ($20) with meat, dhal and coconut sambol, plus one Roast Bread ($13) with egg-milk curry. $33 before tax. Pickup is Saturday and Sunday.

Hopper questions, answered straight

Will you make hoppers for my event if I ask?

No. We do not make hoppers, egg hoppers, milk hoppers or plain string hoppers. We would rather tell you now than disappoint you on the day.

What is closest in texture?

Puttu, the steamed rice flour and coconut on our menu. See puttu in Scarborough and roast bread and coconut roti, or call (647) 449-2924.