I think that grocery stores must have "Asian sections" whenever there are enough Asians in the community to make it worthwhile, because in Baton Rouge, where I grew up, they have them, but I grew up close to LSU, which has a lot of Asian students. And now I am living in Fairfax, Virginia, and there are "Asian sections" in the regular grocery stores, as well as Hispanic. Also the produce sections carry items that Asians like, such as tofu, bean sprouts, fresh coriander, and items that Hispanics like, such as yucca. Some even have Kosher food year-round, not just during Passover, not that we're Jewish, but my husband makes great matzoh ball soup.
Speaking of Kosher, now is the time to stock up on Kosher Coca-Cola, made with sugar, not corn syrup. Sephardic Jews do not eat corn or any legume during Passover.
But I have never noticed whether they carry Panko. I will have to look. I like Zatarain's fish fry for fish, mostly corn flour, and if I can't get Zatarain's then I use corn flour with a little corn meal, which gets nice and crisp. Dip the fish in milk with a little bit of egg, not too much egg or it will be gooey.
I use flour on chicken but let it air dry for a while. Soak the chicken pieces in a big Ziplock bag in seasoned buttermilk overnight (I put salt, black pepper and a little tabasco in the buttermilk. Put seasoned flour (I put salt, some black pepper, red pepper, garlic powder, and herbs) in a big brown paper bag, and put the drained chicken pieces in the back and shake around and then let them sit in there for a while so the flour gloms on for a while, then take them out and shake off the extra flour, and put on a platter and let the coating dry off for maybe an hour. That's the way my grandmother did it and it comes out really good.
Of course, she used to kill her own chickens, and was careful not to contaminate them when she cleaned them, so she didn't have to worry that letting them sit on the platter would let bacteria grow. I always rinse the chickens really good before I cut them up, and after I cut them up I rinse the parts again. In fact, I rinse all meat, except for ground meat. |
