Dolce Lucano

An unsuspecting location amongst industrial units, Dolce Lucano is a hidden gem of goodies. A few dried/​canned goods surround the perimeter of the shop and then it gets straight to the business: the salumi fridge. Luckily — if you, like us, walk in with a glazed look trying to take it all in, the owner is more than willing to explain everything for you: from salami to capiccollo, to prosciutto, and «the pepperoni ends that teenagers like to gnaw on».
Sounds like the owner’s knowledge and recipes have been passed down in the family, and the daughter is more than willing to offer suggestions based on texture and heat preference, as well as your availability to a meat slicer. This place sources to places like Mercatto and North of Brooklyn to name a few.

Pancetta brought me here…
but I left with some Guanciale.
Looking for a fancier Bacon substitute in the GTA, I did some WWW searching.
What is fresh local, what is made-​in-​house, what is representative of Woodbridge?
The answer lead me to this wonderfully designed website.
One on One (
):
A glance at the webpage and it’s easy to recognize the level of commitment.
Another glance and I dreamt that I could make my own WaYnE brand Salumi.
Maybe a dash of szechuan peppercorn, a pinch of… In my dreams~~~
Off I went to meet the local Meat shop in a well hidden path away from everything.
Industrial manufacturing neighbourhood more like autobody shops than food eats.
We step inside an average size butcher shop space with various items for sale.
Dry pastas, canned goods, spices, but Salumi take up a good chunk of space.
We go up to the fridge to discover, learn, browse, smell, touch and admire.
Meat beautiful meat of various Italian cured and processed varieties packaged.
Proscuitto, sopressata, capicollo, pancetta, guanciale to name just a few.
As I pick up what I believe to be my choice of Pancetta, a lovely staff came…
I had a thorough conversation with this Lady about the cooking with Meat.
Ladies, if you wish to gain a Man’s heart, simply learn to speak Carnivore.
At the end, I was directed to the Guanciale as the Meat weapon of choice.
Let’s just say my dish of Moyin Moyin steamed bean dish was a fan fav.
My accompanying friend says it tastes like Chinese cured meat…
but then everything taste like chinese cured meat to her. :P
Fyi, many restaurants use Guanciale to begin their soup base.
Wish someone can give me a reason or money to visit this shop again.
If I go on a regular basis myself, I’m sure I’ll need a second mortgage.

Dolce Lucano is a delightful surprise. Prior to visiting, I thought I was going to a meat shop…
Dolce Lucano does carries meat but special kind of meat: Salumi, which are Italian cured meat products and predominantly made from pork, that is cured in salt and not encased before aging.
Here in Dolce Lucano all their Salumi are prepared in house: Prosciutto, Sopressata, Caccciatore, Capicollo, Pancetta and more. Aside from pork products, there are also cacciatore that made from wild boar.
My advice is to talk to the friendly staff here which is so knowledgeable with all the products. We ended up picking up a piece of Gunaciale (jowl of the hog) which is good for cooking. I also want to try one of their house cured prosciutto but I guess I would have to come back another time to pick some up!
Now I can start dreaming about a charcuterie plate, a glass of wine and pretend I am in Italian under the warm sunshine… or maybe even some Culatello!