The Sri Lankan Breakfast Guide: Hoppers, String Hoppers, and Everything Else

Breakfast in Sri Lanka is not a meal that is rushed. It is the meal that sets the tempo of the day and the Sri Lankans approach it with appropriate seriousness. The canonical breakfast involves hoppers and string hoppers, various sambols and curries, fresh fruit, and strong tea. Eaten on a veranda somewhere with a view, it is one of the great morning rituals of the region.

The egg hopper — a bowl-shaped rice flour and coconut milk pancake with a fried egg at the centre — is the centrepiece of this breakfast universe. Order it with pol sambol on the side: fresh grated coconut, chilli, lime juice, onion, mashed together in proportions that vary by cook and by mood. The sweetness of the coconut against the chilli heat against the egg yolk is a combination that makes complete sense the first time you try it.

String hoppers are steamed coils of rice flour noodle, served in a flat stack with coconut milk gravy poured over them. They are lighter than the egg hopper and gentler in the morning, particularly good if you have had a long night. The gravy, made with coconut milk, curry leaves, and onions, is one of those flavours that stays in the memory.

Pittu is the third member of the breakfast trinity: cylinders of steamed rice flour and coconut, served with coconut milk and a curry. It is dense and filling and particularly good in the hill country where the morning is cool enough to warrant something substantial. Find a local spot that makes pittu to order — the texture fresh from the steamer is completely different from pittu that has been sitting.