Panko

Also called Japanese bread crumbs or honey-wheat bread crumbs, these light-colored, nearly flat shards of flaked wheat flour are used for many of the deep-fried recipes in this book, including Tonkatsu, Ebi Furai, and various korokke (croquettes). In fact, most fried foods in Japan, other than tempura, which uses a batter, are coated with panko, resulting in a light and very crispy coating. Panko is readily available in plastic bags in the Asian or international foods section of supermarkets and is quite inexpensive. I usually repackage it in a freezer bag and store it in my freezer so I always have some on hand.