The texture is nice and chewy, but you really get that genuine dark meat and salt flavour in every bite. In the picture, you see lots of meat, but much of it below the picture is actually super fatty. And the texture on the edges, if you cook it right, gets nice and crispy. I prefer it cubed, because you get the chewiness of it, but thin like this is good and a little goes a lot further. I got this from Brickworks Farmers Market. At a whopping $50/lb, this is something of a treat. A little $10 or $15 piece will flavour a good pound of pasta. To put this in perspective, your regular breakfast bacon usually retails at around $3-$5/lb. Pancetta is a bit more than this. Something like Iberian Ham de Bellota can run you up to $600/lb, so with that in mind, $50 is a deal, right?
On guanciale
Guanciale is Italian cured pork cheek or jowl. It's traditionally used in classic pastas, like spaghetti all carbonara and bucatini all'amatriciana. Because it's largely fat, guanciale has a more seductive pork flavor and delicate texture than cured meat that comes from the belly (like pancetta, which is a common substitute, though the flavor isn't the same).
To make guanciale, you rub pork cheeks with some combination of salt, sugar, pepper, herbs and spices and then air dry them for several weeks.
