Pork Belly & Guanciale: Local Sources?

[Pontormo]

Are either available here abouts, preferably in D.C. proper?

[Gastro888]

You can get pork belly for cheap in an Asian grocery store. Go to Han Ah Rheum or Lotte in either MD or VA or go to Maxim or Kam San in Rockville, MD.

Alas, I cannot report to you a source for guanciale. I brought mine over from Florence...

[Pontormo]

Ma na gia ba!* What did you say in Customs???!!!

Thanks for the recommendations for pork belly sources. I will return to Rockville soon.

*Expression of incredulity, roughly translated as "You're kidding!" and written here phonetically. Actually, something said in Puglia and transported to Florence by my fellow lodgers.

Edited November 7, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[Busboy]

Not sure where you live -- and hence what is convenient -- but An-Binh in Wheaton (11216 Georgia Ave., 301-942-6642 right in the Wheaton Triangle) has the prettiest pork belly I have ever seen anywhere, and also serves up a great Ban Mi (Vietnamese submarine sandwich).

In town, I go to the Asian/Latin/Yuppie Bestway on Mt. Pleasant and Kilbourne streets, for less worthy but eminently serviceable version belly bits.

(Edited to change "Super Savor" to "Bestway." I can never keep those two store's names straight.)

[The Hersch]

I brought salumi through US customs when returning from my last trip to Italy, in May. The trick is not to tell them about it. I'm not sure what would happen if you got caught. Probably not much beyond confiscation, but who knows.

I don't know of any source for guanciale in the Washington area, but you can get it shipped to your door. BUON ITALIA in New York (in Chelsea Market) sells magnificent, glorious guanciale. My guess is that they get it from Biellese Brothers, but I've never asked them. Their shipping charges are slightly astronomical, but you'll love the guanciale. I suppose you might also get Biellese Brothers to ship to you, but I think they're more geared to shipping to other businesses. There's certainly no handy ordering option on their rudimentary WEBSITE.

[Pontormo]

I'm too much of a Girl Scout, I suppose, and have only concealed a single bag of organic farro in my bags on flights back home.

Regarding guanciale from NYC (thanks for tip), if the shipping charges are outrageous and the Chinatown bus is only, what, $40 round-trip....

[jm chen]

I don't know where you can buy guanciale for home consumption, but I do know I saw it on the menu at Dino on Sunday. Cleveland Park. It was on the mercato portion of the menu so it may not be there long.

[Busboy]

I brought salumi through US customs when returning from my last trip to Italy, in May. The trick is not to tell them about it. I'm not sure what would happen if you got caught. Probably not much beyond confiscation, but who knows.

I don't know of any source for guanciale in the Washington area, but you can get it shipped to your door. BUON ITALIA in New York (in Chelsea Market) sells magnificent, glorious guanciale. My guess is that they get it from Biellese Brothers, but I've never asked them.  Their shipping charges are slightly astronomical, but you'll love the guanciale. I suppose you might also get Biellese Brothers to ship to you, but I think they're more geared to shipping to other businesses. There's certainly no handy ordering option on their rudimentary WEBSITE.

←

I was busted with cured pork coming in from France. I guess I looked suspicious because they asked me directly about it and then slid my bags, one-by-one, into a large pork-sensing device (really!). They threw it into a container and sent me off, after extracting a promise that I would never smuggle pork again.

[Gastro888]

By pork sensing device do you mean a police dog? =)

Considering what's normally smuggled across our boarders, a bit o' pork fat ain't going to kill anyone.

[Pontormo]

I don't know where you can buy guanciale for home consumption, but I do know I saw it on the menu at Dino on Sunday. Cleveland Park. It was on the mercato portion of the menu so it may not be there long.

←

I poked my head in while they were prepping for dinner crowd. They said that it came to their kitchen directly from Italy.

However, they also recommended the source in New York City...and the fact that Frank Ruta makes his own guanciale, a remark uttered with a respectful nod to the north.

[JennyUptown]

Dino was out of guanciale last night.

I don't know where you can buy guanciale for home consumption, but I do know I saw it on the menu at Dino on Sunday. Cleveland Park. It was on the mercato portion of the menu so it may not be there long.

←

I poked my head in while they were prepping for dinner crowd. They said that it came to their kitchen directly from Italy.

However, they also recommended the source in New York City...and the fact that Frank Ruta makes his own guanciale, a remark uttered with a respectful nod to the north.

←

[jparrott]

As for guanciale, you can often find Virginia cured jowl at supermarkets. It may be slightly saltier (and it's usually thin-sliced bacon-style for your inconvenience) but it will do for most cooking uses.

[Pontormo]

Brands?

Anyway to get to the source before they cut it into thin slices?

[Gastro888]

I think you'll need to go to NYC. There is an Italian store at the Chelsea Market that sells it along with many other wonderful imported Italian products. It's already shrink wrapped as well.

[jparrott]

Brands? 

Anyway to get to the source before they cut it into thin slices?

←

I don't remember any in particular....just sort of the same brands that the other "country" pork products--country ham, dry bacon, etc--are.

[The Hersch]

I think you'll need to go to NYC.  There is an Italian store at the Chelsea Market that sells it along with many other wonderful imported Italian products.  It's already shrink wrapped as well.

←

That would be Buon Italia, which, as I mentioned upthread, will ship to you anywhere in the US. Since posting that, I discovered another online source HERE. This link takes you right to the guanciale, but poke around the site; they have lots of great stuff. The guanciale is produced by Volpi in St. Louis. Volpi has their own website OVER HERE, but I can't find anything about their guanciale on their site, and the site is really annoying. Anyway, I ordered a three-pound hunk of Volpi guanciale from Ingredients Gourmet (the only way they offer it), and it's superb. At approximately $8 a pound, it would be a bargain if it weren't for the shipping costs. If you get some, ignore the warning on the label that it must be cooked; it's really great raw.

[The Hersch]

I discovered a couple of weeks ago that Dean & Deluca in Georgetown carries guanciale. Expensive at $17/lb, and the woman working the counter didn't have a clue as to how to handle it, but it's good. She didn't know where it came from, but I saw some other stuff marked Salumeria Biellese, so it's probably from there.

[Pontormo]

Thanks for the info.

This is new. How exciting.

They didn't carry it in April when I first called, actually several times.

Balducci's claims it's impossible for them.

I will check it out soon since the stuff I bought as a substitute at Eastern Market is not very good.

[The Hersch]

They didn't carry it in April when I first called, actually several times.

Balducci's claims it's impossible for them.

←

Well, just because they said they didn't have it doesn't mean they didn't, of course. When I was there a couple of weeks back, I saw the guanciale in the window of the salumi counter, with a small "Guanciale" sign, but when I told the woman working the counter that I wanted some guanciale, her response was essentially "huh?". She made a real hash of it when cutting it, too. Ah well.

As to Balducci's: I don't know why it would be impossible for them if it's possible for Dean and Deluca, and for Dean Gold at Dino. I love Balducci's for some things, but their deli counter isn't one of them. Back in Sutton Place Gourmet days, they used to carry a beautiful dry-cured pancetta (from Italy, I think). Balducci's only carries this wet American crap masquerading as pancetta, which is certainly not worth what they charge for it.

As to the Virginia-cured pork jowl mentioned back in November, while I really like this stuff (hey, it's salt-cured pork jowl, what's not to like?) it is utterly unlike guanciale. It's intensely salty and has none of the subtlety of the Italian-style stuff.

[Pontormo]

Well, just because they said they didn't have it doesn't mean they didn't, of course.

Of course you're right.

What was interesting about Balducci's is that I ended up speaking with a Marketing specialist. I sent her the info from NYC's Salum. Bell. by email and she thanked me, saying Balducci's is unable to order the product. I was told the company doesn't feature Italian products in particular despite its name.

As to the Virginia-cured pork jowl mentioned back in November, while I really like this stuff (hey, it's salt-cured pork jowl, what's not to like?) it is utterly unlike guanciale. It's intensely salty and has none of the subtlety of the Italian-style stuff.

←

This is what I bought at Eastern Market, except their source is located in Pennsylvania. Thanks for reminding me of my original inquiry and your early response. I suspect I might prefer the product from VA.

Edited June 20, 2006 by Pontormo (log)