Tamil: இடியப்பம் (Idiyappam)
Sinhala: ඉඳි ආප්ප (Indi Appa)
Category: Breakfast • Staple Food • Heritage Recipe
Culinary tradition: A long-established South Indian and Sri Lankan preparation, especially associated with Tamil, Kerala and Sri Lankan cuisines
Serves: 4 (about 16–20 string hoppers)
Prep: about 30 minutes
Steam: 8–10 minutes per batch
About string hoppers
String hoppers are delicate nests of rice-flour strands made by mixing flour with hot water, pressing the dough through a string-hopper or idiyappam press and steaming the resulting nests.
They are widely eaten in Sri Lanka and southern India and are also familiar in parts of Southeast Asia through related preparations. In Sri Lankan Tamil homes they commonly appear at breakfast or dinner with coconut sambol, seeni sambol, sothi and fish, meat, egg or vegetable curries.
Aana Avanna does not assign the dish exclusively to one modern ethnic community. Its history is shared across overlapping South Indian and Sri Lankan foodways, even though particular families and regions have developed their own accompaniments and techniques.
What does “idiyappam” mean?
The name idiyappam is commonly explained through South Indian language traditions as referring to a pressed or worked preparation combined with appam. Related names include nool puttu or noolappam, where nool means thread/string.
Etymologies of old food names can be repeated more confidently than the surviving historical evidence warrants, so Aana Avanna treats these as commonly given explanations rather than proof of where or when the dish was invented.
Ingredients
500 g roasted idiyappam/string-hopper rice flour
about 450–500 ml boiling water, added gradually
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coconut oil, optional
Different flours absorb different amounts of water. The target is a warm, soft and pliable dough that can pass through the press without cracking or becoming sticky.
Equipment
mixing bowl;
wooden spoon or sturdy spatula;
idiyappam/string-hopper press;
string-hopper mats, steaming plates or another suitable perforated steaming surface;
steamer.
Older presses may be made from brass or wood; modern presses are available in metal and other food-safe materials.
Method
Place the roasted rice flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
Add boiling water gradually while stirring. Stop when the mixture forms a soft dough.
When cool enough to handle, knead briefly until smooth. Do not leave the dough to become cold and firm.
Fill the string-hopper press with warm dough.
Press the strands in circles onto the steaming mats or plates to form loose nests.
Steam for around 8–10 minutes, or until the strands are cooked, opaque and soft.
Rest for a minute or two before lifting gently from the mats. Serve warm.
What good string hoppers look like
They should be soft, fine and separate rather than brittle, gummy or doughy.
If the strands break while pressing, the dough may be too dry or too cool. If the strands spread and stick badly, the dough may contain too much water. Different brands of flour need slightly different quantities.
Traditional flour preparation
Before commercial roasted string-hopper flour became widely available, households prepared rice flour through soaking, drying, roasting and grinding processes that varied by family and locality.
Sathanithi Somasekaram's Introduction to Jaffna Cookery is one useful record of Jaffna food practice, while Sri Lankan food-science research also documents string hoppers as a traditional rice-flour food shared across multiple Sri Lankan and South Indian culinary settings.
Because historical household methods were not identical everywhere, this article does not treat one flour-making procedure as the only authentic method.
Serving traditions
In Sri Lankan Tamil households, common pairings include:
coconut sambol;
seeni sambol;
sothi or another coconut-milk gravy;
fish curry;
chicken or mutton curry;
egg curry;
paruppu and vegetable curries.
Sweet versions may be eaten with grated coconut, jaggery, sugar, banana or coconut milk.
South Indian households may pair idiyappam with kurma, coconut milk, sweetened coconut or other local accompaniments. These serving patterns overlap and vary; they are not rigid ethnic ownership markers.
Family and regional variation
String hoppers may be made from white or red rice flour, pressed into different-sized nests and served with different curries according to household, region and occasion.
Rather than presenting “Jaffna style”, “Batticaloa style” or “Hill Country style” as fixed culinary categories without direct comparative evidence, Aana Avanna records these differences as family and regional serving traditions.
If your family prepares idiyappam differently, that does not place it outside the tradition.
Common mistakes
Using water that is not hot enough.
Making the dough too dry.
Adding too much water.
Allowing the dough to cool before pressing.
Over-steaming until the nests become dry.
Assuming every rice flour behaves the same way.
Storage
String hoppers are best fresh. Cool leftovers promptly and refrigerate in a covered container. Reheat thoroughly by steaming or another suitable method until hot throughout.
If a family freezes prepared string hoppers successfully, quality after thawing will depend on the flour and freezing method; treat “two months” or similar storage claims as practical household guidance rather than a historical recipe rule.
Are string hoppers gluten-free?
Traditional string hoppers made only from rice flour, water and salt contain no gluten ingredients. People with coeliac disease or a serious allergy/intolerance should still check packaged flour for ingredient and cross-contamination information.
Cultural note
For many Sri Lankan Tamil families, string hoppers are bound to weekend breakfasts, large family meals and occasions when one person presses while another loads the steamer.
That memory is genuinely Tamil without requiring the dish to be claimed as exclusively Tamil.
Shared food histories are not weaker histories. They are often evidence of how closely connected the cuisines of southern India and Sri Lanka have been over centuries.
Sources & Further Reading
- Somasekaram, Sathanithi. Introduction to Jaffna Cookery. Arjuna Consulting Company Ltd, 1995. ISBN 955-9276-01-8. A Jaffna-specific culinary reference recommended by the University of Jaffna in teaching material on community foods. Noolaham.
- Sri Lanka Tourism. So Rich in Flavours — String Hoppers. Official tourism material describing string hoppers as a Sri Lankan breakfast/dinner food made from roasted rice flour, pressed and steamed. Sri Lanka Tourism.
- Dissanayake, Chandra. Ceylon Cookery. Colombo: Metro Printers, 1968. Historical Sri Lankan cookbook documenting the island's meal traditions.
- Sivanathan, Prakash K., and Niranjala M. Ellawala. Sri Lanka: The Cookbook. Frances Lincoln, 2017; revised edition White Lion Publishing, 2026. Modern Sri Lankan culinary reference written from both Tamil and Sinhalese food traditions.
- Hutchins, Bree. Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka. Murdoch Books, 2013. Regional documentation of household cooking around Sri Lanka.
- University of Sri Jayewardenepura food-science research. Development of Ready-to-Cook Rice Strings Using Plant Based Edible Gum. Describes string hoppers/idiyappam as a traditional rice-flour preparation associated with Tamil, Kerala and wider Sri Lankan foodways and discusses its production characteristics. University repository.
- Achaya, K. T. The Story of Our Food. Universities Press, 2003. A food-history reference often cited in discussions of early South Indian rice preparations. Claims about exact ancient origins should still be treated cautiously because modern idiyappam cannot simply be projected unchanged into every early literary reference.
Editorial note: The recipe is documented here as part of both Sri Lankan Tamil heritage and a wider shared South Indian/Sri Lankan culinary tradition. Sources that discuss Sri Lanka generally are not used as proof of uniquely Tamil ownership.