Hopper is an authentic Sri Lankan cuisine prepared out of rice flour and coconut milk, turned out using a hopper pan. It looks somewhat like a pancake but certainly different and more exciting. Nibble into delicious, crispy egg hoppers and plain hoppers accompanied by dhal and chicken curry, so yummy it will just melt in the mouth.
Hoppers are the ultimate Sri Lankan staple. They are usually served for breakfast but can be had in the afternoon as well. Hoppers are usually accompanied by a bowl of seeni sambol and pol sambol.
The main ingredients in Sri Lankan hoppers are rice flour, coconut milk, eggs and a little secret ingredient that makes the edges extra crispy.To get hoppers you needed to go to the local eateries, the roti huts, and “hotels” as restaurants in Sri Lanka are often called.
Many hotels even have a live cooking station at breakfast producing plain and egg hoppers to order.
Hoppers are cool these days and tourists seem more willing to try local food, so if you’re heading to Sri Lanka you should now have no problem finding them.
Hoppers come in many forms, standard hoppers are typical Sri Lankan bowl shaped pancakes, hoppers can be filled, you’ll see egg hoppers, vegetable hoppers and sweet hoppers.
plain hoppers
Hoppers in their simplest form are bowl-shaped pancakes made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk. Cooked in small round pans, they tend to come out crispy round the edges, thicker at the bottom.
Egg hoppers
Egg hoppers are simply a plain hopper with an egg cracked in the bottom. Most of the times you can get these in the evening time rather than in the morning as breakfast
Filled hoppers
Hoppers can come with all sorts of fillings. Most of the times it’s vegetable fillings.This makes your breakfast tasty and nutritious at the same time
Curd & trickle hoppers
Curd is fresh buffalo yogurt, or sometimes cow. Small road-side stores sell the curd in terracotta pots wrapped in leaves or newspaper are all over Sri Lanka. Trickle (aka treacle or honey) is coconut palm syrup, it has a lovely smokey flavour. This is most suitable as a dessert.
How to eat hoppers:-
When your dish of hoppers arrives, there will most probably be a mix of both kinds, regular hoppers and egg hoppers. The bowl-shaped hopper is perfect for topping with side dishes. The go-to add-on to any hopper is seeni sambol, a sweet and spicy caramelized onion concoction that captures the hearts of many. Another classic addition to hoppers is pol sambol, which is grated coconut mixed with chilli and lime. For more elaborate hopper meals, there will be some kind of curry. It might be fish or chicken curry in a roasted curry base and juicy coconut milk sauce.
This dining experience will certainly turnout to be one of the highlights of your Sri Lankan tour.
