San Francisco, CA; Boccalone - Plain and simple, the pork shop. AKA, awesome meat shop. The cooler that has hanging pork should be enough to make you walk in. If that isn't enough, how about the hand slicer on the counter and watching the thinnest slices come out. The only next best thing is digging in and eating.

You can purchases sandwiches, but I wish I could buy bread directly there and put together my own. Luckily, there's Acme Bread just down a few shops and you can buy the supplies to put it together.

I asked which ones should I definitely try without leaving, maybe ones that I can't find everywhere, and the gentleman suggested coppa di testa, lonza, and soppressata.

The coppa di testa, I thought was okay, but not my favorite. It was peppery, and most remembering gelatinous. That certainly made it the most interesting. Next was lonza, very delicate and flavorful. I would characterize it as my favorite of the three. It is cut so thin, it is almost transparent. You can hold it up and almost look through it. It means you can taste its distinct flavor with each bite. Lastly, was the soppressata, which he said is spicy, but I didn't think so. When I think spicy, I want it to have some heat, a kick, but I could taste that they were trying to give it something, but it was heat. It was a nice cut of meat, similar to a salami, but not spicy. Enjoy!