tonkatsu with homemade nama panko

was really curious how nama panko compares to store bought panko. after doing a lot of research and finding basically zero methods to try and replicate it at home, I just decided to buy milk bread from a japanese grocery and shread it with a fork. the look, size, and texture of the panko was similar to what I see in yt videos so I just went with it. after frying it, the texture was incredible… it was like ethereal, melt in your mouth shards of glass. to compare I made another one with store bought panko and I could barely eat as it was such a downgrade…

my only issue is the nama panko absorbed a good amount of oil and I could somewhat taste it. maybe its cause I needed to dry it out some? Im not sure how to remedy it but I'll do more testing eventually.

the milk bread I bought from the japanese market was presliced and contained some preservatives and chemicals. I noticed the next day after opening the bag, the bread was slightly harder, and it was nearly impossible to shread to the correct size and shape. so, if you are going to try and make your own, do so when the bread is at its moistest and fluffiest. dont cut off crusts as I found scraping the white part from the crusts produced some of the better shards of panko. it requires some practice to know how much pressure to put on different areas of the slice and recognizing when you have to shread larger chunks which fall off, but I did it in one try so its pretty straightforward. just look at a yt video of what nama panko looks like and aim for that texture.