Although I’m yet to travel to the southern parts of the country, the limited interaction with South Indian cuisine and culture has given me a faint idea about their tastes, styles and preferences. It may be wrong to say that the whole of South India has one sort of culinary heritage just like it may be a skewed perspective to think that all North Indians love butter chicken and naan. There is much more to the cuisine, beyond the idli, dosa, sambhar and coconut chutney that you get here in the northern parts of the country. From my experience and general knowledge, I can gauge that coconut and rice seem to be the mainstays of their fare.
From the idli to dosa and uttapam, a lot of dishes are made from rice flour batter, usually paired with coconut chutney. In fact, several South Indian curries make use of either desiccated coconut or coconut milk to form the gravy and eaten with parottas or rice. This heavy emphasis on rice, coconut, curry leaves and more is quite evident in the Sri Lankan fare too. The geographical proximity of the country with South Indian states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu could be the reason behind this influence. This linkage can be seen in a variety of Sri Lankan dishes like dosas from Tamil Nadu, Kerala’s rice cake, puttu which has a Sri Lankan version known as pittu and the most loved dish of the country, hoppers or should we say appam?
If you’re from any part of South India, it is possible that you might have come across a steamed rice round dish that is shaped like a bowl. That’s appam. Made from a batter of rice flour mixed with coconut milk and yeast, this crispy pancake from Kerala has evolved in many ways over time. For instance, you’ve got a version of appams called idiyappams which are made from steamed pasta-like strands. Do you know what they’re called in Sri Lanka? String hoppers.
The Road From Appams To Hoppers
While the most plausible theories suggest that South Indian influences could be a result of the large-scale Sinhala community of Sri Lankan Tamils who settled there, how did the appams of Kerala land in the island nation remain a mystery. There are some who believe that it was due to the Muslim community that settled along the eastern coast and the Arab trade in that area that might have brought appams to Sri Lanka.
In the research of Gill Marks, late food writer and historian from America, he credits Jewish settlers from the formerly-named cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Kochi for the introduction of appam in the culinary world. The process of bringing it to Sri Lanka was gradual as the colonial rule led to large-scale migration of several South Indians to the island nation. That is how the local ingredients entered into a marriage with these influences to give rise to hoppers of Sri Lanka.
While the appams were initially shortened to appa, it became hoppers when the British anglicized the name and taste of this dish. Sri Lanka became a hopper-loving nation in no time. Resonating with appams, the hoppers are paired with curries, coconut milk or sometimes, a spicy sambal (condiment). However, the most popular in the hopper fare is the egg hopper. A crispy bowl-shaped hopper made with rice flour that has been fermented with yeast, is dunked with a poached egg in the center that is cooked with it. This is a morning staple in most Sri Lankan households.
Drawing Connections And Highlighting Differences
Though there is a starking visual similarity between the two, yet appam and hopper have certain distinguishing features which make them unique. The major difference lies in fermentation, wherein the traditional appams of Kerala use palm toddy to ferment the rice flour. These days, even wine is used to leaven the appam. In contrast to this, Sri Lankans mostly employ yeast as an agent of fermentation.
If you have a closer look at the Sri Lankan hopper, you’ll notice that the crispy pancake is a little taller than the regular appams. The appam chatti, the pan that is used to make appams in Kerala shows closer links with the Syrian Christian community as opposed to the thachchiya which is used for hoppers in Sri Lanka. The carefully-twirled wall with a softer depression in the centre gives taller edges in a hopper due to the kind of pan that is used while the appams remain a little short in that area.
Surprisingly, the fanfare of appams or hoppers is not just limited to the southern belt of India or Sri Lanka but has managed to tantalize the streets of London too, where it is served on food carts along with spicy curries (kari) and coconut milk.