The restaurants and food vendors of San Francisco so love pork that we had a hard time deciding where to visit on our trip to the Bay Area last month. Which bistros and fine-dining establishments would serve us meals? Should we venture over to Berkeley or Oakland? So many choices.
But one thing was clear. We had to visit Boccalone.
I mean, come on. Any business whose motto is Tasty Salty Pig Parts? That has our attention.
Time for a trip to the Ferry Building Marketplace.
The Ferry Building contains so many food vendors and small market spaces bursting with the best of the food produced in the Bay Area that it’s almost an embarrassment of riches. In fact, we’ll share some of our favorite bites from that place in a later post. But we knew right where we were going when we entered the building.
This spectacular place creates some of the best salumi in the Bay Area, and perhaps in the country as a whole. Mark Pastore opened a restaurant called Incanto in 2002 (a place we visited later in the week, where we swooned over the braised pork shoulder), then hired Chris Consentino to be the head chef in 2003. The two men shared a passion for creating good food, great pork dishes, and the Italian tradition of making salumi. Within a couple of years of this kismet-turned-business, Boccalone was born.
It’s easy to think that only the Italians know how to craft great porchetta or prosciutto. But certain American companies are studying the traditional practices and crafting great pork products, the kind that you dream about in the middle of the night and wish you had just one more taste of that fennel salami. Boccalone is one of those companies.
We’ll be dreaming about standing in front of this display case for years to come. Or at least until we return to Boccalone.
Don’t you wish you could just reach in and grab some now?
You might have heard of Boccalone for their salumi cone. In fact, the folks at the Food Network decided that the salumi cone is one of the best bites with bacon they ever ate.
(I’m not going to mention that there is no bacon in a salumi cone. Oops. I just did.)
The salumi cone is good. I mean, it’s a selection of Boccalone salumi, draped over a paper cone.
But if you ask us, this is the only disappointing part of Boccalone. Look at it. That’s a bit of a rip-off for more than $3.
Instead of being a tourist (and we only bought the salumi cone for the photograph you see above), why not buy some real salumi, for nibbling while walking through the city, and to take home?
How could you not want to try orange and wild fennel salami? Or soppressata calabria? Or salame pepato? We sure did.
At the Boccalone stall in the Ferry Building Marketplace, you can buy sandwiches, such as the lonzo sandwich with wild arugula that Danny enjoyed while we sat there. And if you find yourself wanting something with a crunch, you could grab some of these potato chips fried in lard. Oh, do they crunch.
We could have bought one of everything at Boccalone. But time and the wallet did not permit it. We couldn’t leave, however, without buying some Njuda, a spicy salami with a spreadable texture. I could tell you that we used a butter knife to spread it on crackers, politely. But we didn’t. We squished some out of the outer casing right out onto our fingers and licked it off. Imagine soft-cured pork with a bite. That stuff kicks the ass of deviled ham, any day.
We could have stayed for hours, gawking at salumi in the refrigerated cases. But sadly, we had to bid goodbye to Boccalone. We had some prosciutto ice cream to find.
But we’ll be back.
Thanks, Boccalone.
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Yum! It’s just a ferrie ride away, but I’ve nver been. Now…well, this weekend looks clear ; )
I finally got out to San Francisco to visit my best friend, and they took me straight away to the farmer’s market at the Ferry Building. (I’m the kind of person who brings home 5 pounds of dried beans from a vacation and takes an al pastor burrito from the Mission to eat on the plane home. Pro tip: put your little cup of delicious salsa in your baggie of products, and you’ll be salsa-licious all the way home.) I was really excited to visit Boccalone after reading about it here, and it did not disappoint. Even on a crowded Saturday, the man behind the counter was more than happy to answer questions with his full attention, and gave me samples I didn’t even request! I’ll agree, the salumi cone is not a bargain and very touristy, but walking along and sharing some tasty salty pig parts with my best friend’s boyfriend made for some great bonding in my too-short visit. And any travelers can rest assured - just as they assured me - the Njuda makes it through a cross-country flight just fine. After we get done spreading it on everything that will sit still, I think I’m going to use a bit of Njuda as cooking fat for sauteing some green beans.