Hoppers and Mallung (Ceylon Cookery)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    The round-the-world etymological mystery tour continues next with Sri
Lanka in February (www.ceylonexpress.com).  I had met an Australian couple
last February on my New Zealand tour, and the beautiful wife is from Sri
Lanka.  They're in Sri Lanka now, and they told me they've warned all the
local women about me, whatever that means.
   Sri Lanka is an extremely dangerous place, more dangerous than Israel.
However, temporary peace agreements were signed recently, and my visit will
coincide with the visit of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  Tourism is
starting to pick up, and it'll probably be a flood very soon.
  The major staples of the cuisine, such as "hoppers" and
"mallun/mallung/mallum," are not in the OED.




NEOS GUIDE
SRI LANKA, MALDIVES
Michelin Travel Publications
432 pages, paperback, $23.95
2001

Pg. 71:
...it has borrowed all sorts of recipes, from _aluwa_, sugared semolina from
the Arab world, to _dodol_ (coconut milk caramel with palm syrup), _sathe_
(thin strips of meat on skewers) and _sambol_ from Malaysia.
(...)
_Hoppers_ (_appa_) resemble pancakes which have been leavened by
incorporating palm beer (_toddy_), mixed with coconut milk and fried in a
special little pan. (...)  _String hoppers_ (_idiappa_), little steamed nests
of noodles, are eaten with the same accompaniments.
Pg. 72:
   If the combination of spices in the dish is not hot enough, they tuck into
some _mallun_ (a salad of shredded green leaves served cold having been
cooked in water with onions and chillies) or _sambol_ , a seasoning based on
ground chilli pepper, salt, onion and dried fish, sometimes served with
grated coconut (_pol sambol_).


SRI LANKA
by Verity Campbell and Christine Niven
Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications
328 pages, paperback, $16.99
First published February 1980
8th edition August 2001

Pg. 84:
..._pol sambol_, a red-hot side dish made with grated coconut, chilli and
spice.  Sambol is the general name used to describe any spicy-hot dish.
   (...)  ...mallung_ (shredded green leaves with spices, lightly stir-fried)
is common, and the meal would not be complete without _parripu_ (red lentil
dhal) or another pulse curry.  (...)
   ..._kool_, a boiled, fried and dried-in-the-sun vegetable combination.
Pg. 85:
..._ambul thiyal_, a pickle usually made from tuna, which is literally
translated as "sour fish curry."
   Unique Sri Lankan foods include _hoppers_, which are usually a breakfast
or evening snack.  (...)
   A popular breakfast among Sri Lankans is fresh bread dipped in dhal or a
curry with a thin gravy or _hodhi_.
   Another rice substitute os +pittu_, a mixture of flour and grated coconut
steamed in a bamboo mould so thjat it comes out shaped like a cylinder.
   _Lamprai_, a popular dish of Dutch origin, is made of rice boiled in meat
stock, then added to vegetables and meat and slowly baked in a banana-leaf
wrapping.
Pg. 86:
   A rotty chopped up and mixed with vegetables (or meat or egg) is called a
_kotthu rotty_.
(...)
   The Sri Lankans also have lots of ideas for desserts, including
_wattalappam_, a Malay-originated egg pudding, vaguely caramel-like in taste.
 Curd and honey, or curd and treacle known as _kiri peni_, is good at any
time of day. (...) The treacle, called _kitul_, is really syrup from the
kitul palm.  If it's boiled and set to form hard blocks you have _jaggery_,
an all-purpose Sri-Lankan candy or sweetener.
   Like Indians, Sir Lankans waste no opportunity to indulge their sweet
tooth--sweets are known as _rasa-kavili_.  You could try _kavun_, spiced
flour and treacle batter-cake fried in coconut oil, or _aluva_, which is rice
flour, treacle and cashew-nut fudge.  Coconut milk jaggery and cashew nuts
give you the dark and delicious _kalu dodol_.  _Kiri bath_ is a dessert or
rice cooked in milk.


THE OXFORD COMPANION TO FOOD
by Alan Davidson
Oxford University Press
1999

Pg. 385:  HOPPER
Pg. 689:  SAMBAL
Pg. 750:  SRI LANKA (...)
_Mallums_ are distinctive vegetable dishes thus described by Chandra
Dissanayake (1976): "a preparation in which a fruit, edible root, leaf,
vegetable or coconut may (Pg. 751--ed.) be finely shredded or grated and
cooked until done with coconut."


CEYLON COOKERY
OR THE NATIVE COOK'S ASSISTANT
IN ENGLISH AND SINHALESE
Fourth Edition--Revised and Enlarged
Colombo: A. M. J. Ferguson
1901

   The first edition was published October 1881.  This is the earliest
cookbook that the NYPL has, and boy, does it disappoint.  The Sinhalese type
is not transliterated and is unreadable to English speakers.  I didn't see
"hoppers" here.  The recipes are such Tamil classics as "Irish stew."
   Some items from the Index:

BEEF:--
   Polpetti
   Saunders
MADE DISHES:--
   Debris Pudding
   Kedgeree
MISCELLANEOUS:--
   Billing (Billimbe) Jam
MUTTON:--
   Dormars
VEGETABLES:--
   Brinjals au Gratin


CEYLON: THE PARADISE OF ADAM
by Caroline Corner
London: John Lane
1908

Pg. 104:  After this and a cup of tea and "string _appas_" they felt "fit."
(Many, many "appas" are here instead of "hoppers"--ed.)


EVERY DAY LIFE ON A CEYLON COCOA ESTATE
by Mary E. Steuart
London:  Henry T. Drake
1908

Pg. 68:  "Poochee" is the generic Ceylon name for pestilent insects, and
truly their name is legion.


THINGS SEEN IN CEYLON
by Clare Rettie
New York: E. P. Dutton & Company
1929

Pg. 34:  On returning to olombo, after those pleasing excursions, it is well
to see, before turning into bed, that mosquito nets are intact, in case some
wicke _poochie_ (all creepy, crawly things are called "poochies" in Ceylon)
gets inside.

Pg. 70:  It must be explained that, for some extraordinary reason (nobody
seems to know why), all pupils on tea estates are called "Creepers"; the
custom is universal in Ceylon.

Pg. 76:  Others have a collection of strange vegetables: bandakai, brinjals,
vivid red chillies, avocada pears, and insipid breadfruit; or they may
display ingredients for curry making; piles of snowy rice, coco-nuts, Bombay
duck, popodums, and so on.  There are odd looking cakes, too, called
"hoppers," made of coco-nut milk and rice flour; pottery of artistic shapes;
tawdry jewellery--the medley of things always to be seen where Natives
congregate.

Pg. 77:  Many of them come from remote bungalows, which, even in these days
of motors, must often be lonely, and few of the "sine Dorais" (literally
"Little Masters," used by Natives in addressing all young Europeans) can
afford the luwury of a car.


A CEYLON COOKERY BOOK
by Doreen Peiris
Revised Second Edition
Colombo: Lanka Trading Co.
1967?

   There's a huge NYPL cookbook gap from 1901 to 1967.  Maybe a library in
Colombo has English-lanugage cookbooks?

Pg. 54:  MUKUNUWANNA MALLUM...KATHURUMURUNGA MALLUM
Pg. 128:  HOPPERS (APPA)
Pg. 129:  EGG HOPPERS
Pg. 130:  JAGGERY HOPPERS (Hakuru Appa)...WANDU APPA (Steamed Hoppers)
Pg. 131:  WANDU APPA (Steamed Hoppers)...STRING HOPPERS (with only Rice
Flour)
Pg. 132:  STRING HOOPERS...STRING HOPPER LAVARIYA
Pg. 133:  PITTU...SAGO PITTU...KURAKKAN PITTU


FAVOURITE RECIPES
Compiled by The Past Pupils of GOOD SHEPHERD CONVENT, KOTAHENA
Colombo: Arosan Printers
1968

Pg. 14:  ATIRAHA--THE CEYL:ON OIL CAKES
Pg. 15:  BIBIKKAN
Pg. 17:  SATTI THOSI I...SEENI MAHA
Pg. 18:  SATI THOSI II...BROEDER II
Pg. 23:  KONDE KAVUN...KOKIS
Pg. 61:  MOCK WATTALAPAN...MOSS JELLY & JAGGERY PUDDING
Pg. 65:  GHULAB JAN--AN INDIAN SWEET
Pg. 66:  JAGGERY & CADJUNUT TOFFEE...POTATO ALUWA
Pg. 67:  PUNTHALOO...RULANG SWEET
Pg. 73:  CHATTY THOUSY
Pg. 77:  KALU DODOL
Pg. 94:  DRUMSTICK FUGETTI
Pg. 95:  POLOS PAHIE
Pg. 108:  CHELLUM
Pg. 134:  HACHII (SAVOURY BEEF & ONION STEW)


GUNASENA COOKERY BOOK
Colombo: M. D. Gunasena & Co., Ltd.
1970

Pg. 22:  Kiribath (Milk RIce)
Pg. 30:  Idiappa (String-hoppers)
Pg. 31:  Idiappa Buriyani...Pittu
Pg. 24:  Sudu Appa (Hoppers)
Pg. 35:  Egg Hoppers--I
Pg. 36:  Vellavahum
Pg. 37:  Kiri Roti
Pg. 39:  Hakuru-appa or Pani-appa (Jaggery Hoppers)
Pg. 51:  Sago Dodol-I
Pg. 52:  Vali Thalapa-I
Pg. 55:  Rulang Aluva-I
Pg. 57:  Tala Guli (Gingelly Balls)-I
Pg. 61:  Puhul Dosi (Pumpkin Preserve)-I
Pg. 86:  Mukunuvenna Mallung
Pg. 87:  Gotukola Mallung
Pg. 103:  Chilli Sambol
Pg. 114:  Bandakka (Ladies' Fingers) Sambol-I
Pg. 164:  Kunissan Malluma
Pg. 168:  Ingura Baduma
Pg. 231:  Dried Mango Paehi