Not a pastry shop, but a pastel stand. That’s the custom: good pastel is from the fair, sold on the street, eaten on a stool, with knees leaning against the stainless steel counter, hot sauce in hand. If the person watching over the frying pan and skimmer has slanted eyes, it becomes even more classic. In the neighborhood of Glória, on Sundays, Oswaldo Kina, a native of Minas Gerais, is a true representative of this tradition. To top it off, he was raised in São Paulo, where fair pastel is a thing of the past. He moved to Rio almost a decade ago, following his parents’ advice. Settled in Rio since 1990, Antonio and Aurora paved the way in the state of Rio de Janeiro for the rest of the Kina family: “The whole family followed suit. The market in Rio wasn’t as saturated as in São Paulo,” says Oswaldo, who admits to having no idea how many pastel vendors with the last name Kina are now scattered throughout the Rio de Janeiro fairs. “Maybe around fifty stalls run by relatives. We are the largest family in the pastel business in Rio, without a doubt,” he claims. As a grandson of immigrants from the island of Okinawa, Oswaldo is not the most orthodox descendant, quite the opposite. He ran away to marry Sônia 32 years ago because his parents didn’t even consider allowing their son to marry a non-Japanese. However, when it comes to pastel, he is not flexible at all. “We only make the four traditional flavors: meat, cheese, heart of palm, and chicken (with catupiry cheese).” In São Paulo, he indignantly points out, there is no stall with fewer than ten or fifteen options – dried meat, pizza, bauru (a Brazilian sandwich), calabresa sausage, broccoli, chocolate. “It’s a problem caused by fierce competition. You have to come up with new things to attract customers,” he observes. Before succumbing to street fairs, he tried to make money in various activities. He sold cigarettes, owned a clothing company, worked as a taxi driver, wholesaled potatoes, onions, and garlic, distributed fruits and vegetables to restaurants and hotels, drove a school bus… “After almost going bankrupt, I started my life over in Rio with pastel. I found the right venture, the same one my parents had since 1973.” At least this slice of the Kina family won’t be leaving Rio anytime soon. “It’s better for work, for life. Our lives have improved a lot since we started in Glória. It’s a blessed fair for us,” celebrates Sônia. “And Cariocas (people from Rio) are much friendlier than Paulistas (people from São Paulo),
they talk a lot, make friends.”