What's the difference between a hopper and a string hopper?

A hopper (appa) is a bowl-shaped fermented rice-flour pancake, crisp edges and soft center, often served with an egg in the middle. String hoppers (idiyappam) are tiny rice-noodle nests, eaten with curry and pol sambol. Both are breakfast or dinner — never lunch. Order 4 hoppers per person, mix sweet and egg.

Hoppers and string hoppers — Sri Lanka's breakfast staple explained

Sri Lanka’s greatest breakfast contribution to world cuisine

The hopper (called “appa” in Sinhala) is Sri Lanka’s most ingenious food. It’s made from a fermented batter of rice flour, coconut milk, and a tiny amount of palm toddy (coconut fermentation starter) — poured into a small, rounded wok, swirled to coat the sides, covered, and cooked until the edges are crisp and lacy and the center is soft, spongy, and slightly sour from fermentation.

The result is a bowl-shaped pancake with three textures in one piece: a crisp, almost cracker-like outer edge, a soft and spongy mid-section, and a tender, eggy center (in the egg hopper variant). It’s breakfast food, and it’s one of the best breakfast foods in Asia.


Where	Breakfast stalls and local “hotels” (eateries) island-wide — strongest hunting grounds are Colombo’s residential streets, Kandy, Ella, and the south coast towns
Cost	Around 40–100 LKR per hopper at a local stall; roughly 150–400 LKR for a full string hopper set at a tourist-facing restaurant
Time needed	20–30 minutes for a sit-down breakfast
Best time to eat	Early morning (around 6–10am) or evening (around 6–9pm) — hoppers largely disappear from menus at lunch
Getting there	No booking needed — walk into any stall with hoppers on a chalkboard, or ask your guesthouse where locals eat breakfast

Hoppers (appa): the practical guide

The varieties

Plain hopper: Just the base — fermented rice batter, cooked in the rounded pan. Soft center, crisp edges. Eaten with accompaniments (pol sambol, curry, honey).

Egg hopper: A whole egg is cracked into the center of the batter just before covering the pan to cook. The egg sets inside the bowl, producing a soft-yolk egg in the center surrounded by the crisp hopper base. This is the most ordered and most iconic variant.

Sweet hopper: Sugar or treacle (coconut treacle / kithul) drizzled into the center instead of egg. A dessert variant that’s eaten at breakfast by those with a sweet tooth.

Milk hopper: Thicker, creamier batter made with more coconut milk. Richer, slightly denser. A special occasion version.

How to eat hoppers

Tear a piece from the crisp outer edge and use it as a scoop for pol sambol (spicy coconut chutney) from the small bowl on the side. This is the standard technique — using the hopper itself as a utensil. Eat the soft center last, by which point the pol sambol and curry you’ve been dipping have coated the outer sections.

For an egg hopper: break the yolk by pressing with your finger, let it run across the soft center, and then eat as above. The runny yolk and the slightly sour fermented base is one of Sri Lanka’s great flavor combinations.

Quantity: Order 4 per person at breakfast. A single hopper is about the size of a small bowl and doesn’t weigh much — 3 or 4 constitutes a proper meal.

Where to find hoppers

Hopper-specific breakfast places: Most Sri Lankan towns have small shops or stalls that make hoppers to order from dawn until mid-morning. They close by 10am or 11am (when breakfast ends) and often reopen from 6pm to 9pm for the dinner hopper crowd.

Large local hotels: In the Sri Lankan sense — lunch restaurants — that also do breakfast will typically have hoppers.

Not at western-style hotels: Many mid-range tourist hotels serve a “Sri Lankan breakfast” that includes pre-made hoppers, often stale, kept in a warming tray. These are not the real thing. Ask specifically whether hoppers are made to order.

Cost: 40–100 LKR per hopper at a local stall. Tourist restaurant prices: 150–300 LKR.

String hoppers (idiyappam): the lighter alternative

String hoppers are a completely different product from hoppers despite the shared name. They’re made by pressing rice flour dough through a mold with small holes, creating bundles of thin rice noodle strands pressed into flat circular nests about the size of your palm.

String hoppers don’t have the crisp-and-soft texture contrast of hoppers — they’re uniformly delicate, slightly chewy, and neutral in flavor. Their appeal is textural: the thin noodle strands absorb curry sauce and coconut milk beautifully, making each bite a blend of mild noodle and aromatic sauce.

How to eat string hoppers

String hoppers are not eaten alone — they need accompaniments. The standard combination:

Coconut milk curry: A thin, creamy curry specifically made to be light enough to pour over the string hoppers
Pol sambol: The spicy coconut chutney that appears at every Sri Lankan breakfast
Dhal curry: Thicker than the coconut milk curry, added as a secondary sauce

Take a string hopper nest, pour coconut milk curry over it, add a spoonful of pol sambol, and eat. The ratio of sauce to noodle is important — too much sauce makes it watery, too little makes it dry.

Quantity: A standard serving is 4–6 string hopper nests plus accompaniments.

When: Same as hoppers — breakfast or dinner. Not lunch. String hoppers for dinner is very common in the hill country and cultural triangle areas.

Cost: 150–400 LKR for a set at a local breakfast place.

Hoppers vs string hoppers: which to choose

This is ultimately a personal preference question, but:

Choose hoppers if: You want the fermented tang, the textural contrast, and the egg experience. Egg hoppers are one of the most satisfying individual things you can eat in Sri Lanka.

Choose string hoppers if: You want something lighter and more neutral, or if you want to focus on the quality of the accompaniment curries rather than the bread base.

Best answer: Order both — one egg hopper and 4–6 string hoppers is a completely typical Sri Lankan breakfast combination.

Cooking hoppers and string hoppers at a class

Both are taught at most Sri Lankan cooking classes. Learning to make hoppers is particularly valuable: the fermentation timing, the wok swirl technique, and the ratio of ingredients are all skills that demystify a food that seems mysterious from the outside. See our guide to picking a cooking class for how to choose between the home-kitchen and hotel-run options.

Book a Galle home cooking class — hoppers and string hoppers are part of the curriculum Book a Kandy cooking class with 12 Sri Lankan dishes including hoppers

Regional variations worth seeking out

Hoppers and string hoppers aren’t uniform across the island. Jaffna and the north make a spicier, coconut-forward version of the accompanying curries, reflecting the region’s Tamil culinary tradition — worth a detour if you’re spending time there (see our Jaffna guide for where to eat). Kandy and the hill country lean toward richer, more buttery hoppers, often served alongside a milkier coconut sambol than you’ll find on the coast.

Colombo has the widest range, from bare-bones roadside stalls to hotel restaurants doing elaborate hopper tasting menus. If you’re building out a wider taste of the island’s cooking, our Sri Lankan food guide and street food guide both cover hoppers within the bigger picture, alongside dishes like kottu roti.

What to drink alongside

Plain Ceylon black tea, taken with condensed milk, is the traditional pairing — strong enough to cut through the richness of coconut milk curry. See our Ceylon tea pairing guide for tea-and-food matches beyond breakfast. King coconut water is the other common accompaniment, especially on the coast where it’s sold fresh and chilled outside almost every eatery — our king coconut guide explains what to expect from it.

Mistakes to avoid

Ordering hoppers at lunch — most stalls stop serving them by 10–11am and don’t restart until the evening; if you want hoppers, plan for breakfast or dinner, not midday.
Accepting the warming-tray version at a hotel buffet without asking — many mid-range hotels serve pre-made, reheated hoppers; ask if they’re made to order, or head to a local stall instead.
Skipping the pol sambol — the spicy coconut chutney is what makes a plain hopper interesting; don’t eat one dry.
Drowning string hoppers in too much curry — the noodle-to-sauce ratio matters; add coconut milk curry gradually rather than pouring it all on at once.
Not trying regional versions — the hoppers you get in Jaffna or Kandy taste noticeably different from a Colombo stall; if you’re travelling the island, compare a few.

FAQ

Can I make hoppers at home after my trip?

Yes, with some practice. The fermentation is the tricky part — you need either palm toddy (impossible to find outside Sri Lanka) or a substitute of a small amount of active yeast in coconut water, left to ferment overnight. The batter is then mixed with rice flour and coconut milk. The rounded wok (appachatti) is available online or at Asian cooking equipment shops.

Are hoppers gluten-free?

Yes. Hoppers are made from rice flour and coconut milk, with no wheat content. String hoppers are also rice flour based. Both are naturally gluten-free, making Sri Lankan breakfast one of the better naturally gluten-free breakfast options anywhere in Asia.

What time do hopper stalls open and close?

Most open at 6–6:30am and close by 10–11am. Evening sessions typically run 6–9pm. The gap in the middle (lunch hours) is when Sri Lankans eat rice and curry — hoppers at lunch is unusual.

Is it rude to eat hoppers with a fork instead of your hands?

Not rude — just less efficient. The technique of tearing the crisp edge works better with fingers. Forks are available at tourist restaurants. At local stalls, you’ll use your right hand naturally once you understand the eating motion.