DIY panko and comments on the internet
I’ve missed curry from coco curryhouse ever since I moved to Austin - there are none here (although one is supposed to be opening up in the dallas area soon); and places I’ve been to haven’t quite hit the same. The curry blocks from the store are great, but not quite the same. I haven’t quite been able to re-create the curry from scratch but I’m starting to get there.
Anyways, this post is more about the panko, which I’ve been more curious about. You can buy the pre-packaged bread crumbs from the grocery store, but restaurant style seems to be different in texture. The interent an reddit really weren’t much help, and the comments on posts are downright hostile and wrong
Here’s one:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/es5hn/anybody_make_homemade_panko_bread_crumbs_before/
Those are called “bread crumbs”. To make panko, you need to coat a wire mesh with batter and run an electric current through it. I don’t think that’s a make-your-own type of thing.
There’s another thread that isn’t too helpful either, although someone mentions how hostile people were in the previous post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/es8qw/has_anybody_tried_making_panko_bread_crumbs_at/
Finally, took a while to find this gem, which is not even that highly upvoted:
From what I remember, you want to get a loaf of fresh baked bread and let it sit for 1-2 days, depending on the humidity. It doesn’t need to be “fresh out of the oven” but fresh baked bread is relatively easy to get in Japan and a higher quality then mass consumer/commercial variety. It also serves as a point of reference for starting level of moistness. If the bread is too dry, it loses the purpose of it being “fresh panko” and additionally, the panko won’t stick as well to the flour/egg mix.
The video the comment references this video: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2866oy
Clearly (at ~7:12), you can see the chef using a mesh to make panko, and it turns out great in the end (restaurant quality).
The results look restaurant quality:
Other notes
Coco curryhouse online
You can actually buy coco curryhouse packets (not blocks) on amazon… they’re super expensive though: https://www.amazon.com/CoCo-Ichibanya-Curry-House-curry/dp/B06XSYNRGT
Dan Luu’s comments on internet comments
I remember dan luu talking about how comments on the internet are pretty terrible. Going down this rabbit hole kind of reminds me of what I read in the past… I can’t find the page anymore, but I remember seeing it somewhere. One of his patreon posts mentions internet comments, maybe it used to be free but not anymore: https://www.patreon.com/posts/16164634
He has comments about comments on HN, however: https://danluu.com/hn-comments/