Appam is the Sri Lankan breakfast dish consisting of a bowl-shaped fermented rice-flour pancake.
Appam is made from a fermented batter based mainly on rice and coconut milk. It is cooked in a small, rounded pan, where the batter spreads thinly up the sides while remaining thicker and softer in the center. This creates its distinctive bowl shape.
A common variation, mutta appam, has an egg cracked into the center while the pancake cooks. Appam may be served with coconut milk, sambal, vegetable dishes, or meat and fish curries.
The food is also widely associated with Kerala in southern India, so it should not be treated as belonging exclusively to one modern country. Spelling and preparation vary across regions, including Sri Lanka and southern India.