Tent is successful with ‘different’ meats and freshly roasted cuts

THE Casa de Carnes Serra da Cantareira, in Tremembé, north of São Paulo, has existed for 55 years at the same address: Avenida Senador José Ermírio de Moraes, 468. For 15 years, it has belonged to the same owners, who run the business with three employees.

Among them, manager Thiago Yoshio Satake, 36, from Guarulhos, who after completing elementary school took several courses focused on cooking, hygiene and food handling, specializing in street food.

Four years ago, during a trip to Maceió, Satake saw street vendors selling roasted chicken in the streets. Galeto is a young chicken, slaughtered at a few weeks old, between the tenth and twenty-first days.

Back in São Paulo, Satake decided to open a roast stall to sell, instead of chickens, his brothers who were bigger in weight and size, but also unfortunate “chickens run over” (boneless and grilled open). In partnership with Marcelo Campos, 45, from São Paulo, owner of Casa de Carnes Serra da Cantareira, a butcher shop where Satake is the manager, they opened Templo dos Assados, with a tent set up in front of the meat house.

At the beginning, even before the coronavirus pandemic, in the tent set up only on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, 70 chickens were sold per day, in addition to 30 ribs on the breath, 400 skewers and 300 kilos of pancetta, during the opening period. “Currently these numbers vary, due to the pandemic, but we serve on average between 200 and 250 people”, says Satake.

Inside the white tent there are four grills, two deep fryers and a stove displaying skewers of meat, chicken, sausage, heart, coalho cheese and garlic bread, which cost between R$6 and R$7.

Among the meats roasted on the grills, which consume six eight-kilogram packages of charcoal a day, there are ribs roasted (for eight hours) in the pan, pork knuckle and ribs, the chicken run over and the biggest star, the pancetta rolled up and smoked.

Smoked for two days, before entering the tent to be sliced ​​into rolls and fried in hot fat, the pancetta is a hit. “People come from all over the city and beyond to eat this crackling, which we cut and serve on the spot, according to the customer’s taste”, she says.

A day, 12 to 16 rolls of pancetta are displayed in the tent, each weighing about six kilos, which, divided, generate portions of 350 grams, which cost R$ 20 — but if the customer wants to take the piece home , it costs R$ 35.90 a kilo in natura; smoked is more expensive, R$ 59.90 a kilo, because the process reduces its weight by about 40%.

“Everything bought from the butcher and baked in the stall is free,” says Satake. “We do the preparation for free.”

Among the meats considered “different” are those from wild animals or game species. Among them, the extra-clean frog is sold in packs of half a kilo; the rabbit is made available whole or cut to be made for the huntress; the duck, whole, can be seasoned or unseasoned; there are also alligators and wild boar.

How it works? The customer calls the butcher and asks for the meat he wants. It will be weighed and charged at the counter price, wrapped in aluminum foil and taken to the barbecue, with an appointment for it to be removed ready for consumption.

But, be careful, don’t be late: the rack of lamb, for example, bakes quickly, around ten to 20 minutes, depending on the point requested by the customer. “In the case of the lamb cart”, explained Satake, I prefer to wait for the person to arrive to roast it, because if they are late in traffic for 30 minutes, the meat has already dried and is not good.”

In addition to the aforementioned exotic meats and the traditional ones, which everyone knows, such as soft coxão, duckling, sirloin, sirloin and rump, at Casa de Carnes Serra da Cantareira there are manipulated meats. Among them, hamburgers (a pack of six hamburgers, weighing 100 grams each, costs R$ 23.90), and the breast stuffed with coalho cheese (piece weighing 1.5 kilos), in addition to suckling pig, ribs, ribs with leather, without leather and porchetta, which is different from the pancetta from which crackling rolls come out.

Pancetta and porchetta are made from the same cut —pork belly—, but porchetta, which is also made with crackling, is stuffed with special farofa, with pepperoni, bacon and ground olives. Porchetta is a dish to be served to a lot of people, as it yields well.

“At Christmas, for example, many customers preferred to take the porchetta instead of the suckling pig because it is cheaper. It’s a bigger cut, with better cost benefit”, explains Satake.

There is still in this “carnelândia” the ancho steak, prime rib, short rib and tomahawk. Tomahawk is one of those cuts used by Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe to advertise his chain of restaurants specializing in meat.

A famous figure in videos on the internet, Gökçe always appears, wearing sunglasses, boning and slicing a beautiful piece of tomahawk, before finishing, jokingly, sprinkling salt on the meat. At Casa de Carnes da Serra da Cantareira, the tomahawk is of the Angus breed, weighing on average one kilo, and each piece is sold for R$99.90.

Outside the tent, there are a few plastic stools to accommodate those who want to eat a crackling or a skewer. The tent is full of people, and the best time to buy and take home or eat in peace is from 9 am to 10 am — after that, the crowd is certain.

In partnership with Marcelo, owner of Casa de Carnes da Serra da Cantareira, Satake also opened, two years ago, in Vila Albertina, close to the meat house, Templo dos Assados ​​Especiarias, a factory from which products bearing the Templo dos Roasts, a line of salts, seasonings and sauces used to season the meats roasted in the tent and for orders.

In the factory, a line of traditional parrilla salts is made, seasoned with garlic, chimichurri, peppered, with Sicilian lemon, with fine herbs, in addition to sea salt and Himalayan rose (fine and thick), all for sale at the butcher shop.

Prepared for the grill to cook completely, preventing it from drying out, keeping the meat succulent, both fine and sea salt —which do not go through the processes that refined salt goes through and do not have chemical anti-caking and bleaching additives— are ideal for barbecue.

Some celebrities from the music world often appear at the Roast Temple. Almir Sater, Sérgio Reis and other artists have already been there. According to Satake, rapper, singer, lyricist and songwriter Emicida, and singer-songwriter Gaab, are regular customers.

Felipe Palazzo, 34, insurance, resident of Vila Nova Cachoeirinha, has been a customer of Satake for two years. A mountain biker, he often rides in Serra da Cantareira. From so much passing in front of the showy meat exposed in the tent, one day he stopped.

“I was coming back from a trail and I stopped to eat a crackling and have a beer. Then, man, I was delighted!”, he recalls. Seasoned ham and crackling are her favorites. “Man, there’s nothing to say. It’s phenomenal, you can even order the stuffed ham if you want. My family likes the seasoned one better, without the stuffing, but it’s all good.”

Cleide Rodrigues, 48, from Guarulhos, an architect and resident of Serra da Cantareira, has been a client of the meat house for eight years, and of the Templo dos Assados, since it opened. “On the day when I feel like doing nothing around the house, I go down the mountain to get food from the tent,” she says.

“I don’t think there’s anything from them that I haven’t eaten. I love the chicken [atropelado], which comes without bones and with the farofinha ready. I also eat a lot of skewers, at least ten, the chicken one is very good. And also that rolled up crackling thing [pancetta]Hey guys, it’s wonderful!”, says the customer, who sometimes asks Satake to bake a picanha too.

“It’s wonderful, not to mention you don’t have to clean the grill afterwards.”

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The establishment also sells charcoal, barbecue equipment, canned hearts of palm and cold beer cans, which the customer can drink while waiting for their order to be ready, for prices ranging from R$5 to R$7.

“It’s a bar price, more to serve customers who are waiting, but we also have natural juices for those who don’t drink beer. Here, we usually say that it’s the butcher shop for impossible matters. we do”, promises the chef.