The bowl-shaped, lacy-edged pancake made from fermented rice batter in Sri Lankan cuisine is appam, commonly called a hopper in Sri Lanka.
Appam is made from fermented rice batter, usually enriched with coconut milk, and cooked in a deep, rounded pan called an appachatti. The batter is swirled around the pan so the edges become thin and crisp while the center remains soft and thicker, creating the characteristic bowl shape. Egg hoppers add an egg to the center during cooking.
The dish is shared by South Indian and Sri Lankan food traditions. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu it is generally called appam or aappam, while Sri Lankan English commonly uses “hopper.” Fermentation may rely on yeast or, traditionally, palm toddy. Appam is often eaten for breakfast or dinner with vegetable, meat, or fish curry. It is easy to confuse with dosa, but dosa is usually flatter and often includes black gram; uttapam is thicker and typically topped with vegetables rather than shaped into a bowl.