Have you ever formed a dance circle around a fried chicken sandwich? Or cheersed a stranger with a piping hot salteña? That's the party of Bolivian Llama Party. The walk-up window in Sunnyside usually has people hanging out in front of the primary-colored awning, eating scoops of purple corn ice cream while Bolivian Top 40 blasts from the speakers. Bolivian Llama Party gets points for the sidewalk scene, sure, but even more so for showing off a cuisine that's difficult to find in the five boroughs. Their signature salteñas—thick, handheld pastries filled with slurpable beef or chicken stew—are the perfect ambassadors to newbies. As are the trancapecho sandwiches filled with thinly pounded steak, and cups of creamy peanut soup. A lot of the time, Bolivian Llama Party saves its more traditional stuff for weekend specials. So if you’re here on a Saturday, prioritize those. Not all of the dishes are traditional, per se. Our favorite thing on the menu—and one of the most popular—is the fried chicken sandwich called the diablada broster. This many years into NYC's hot chicken takeover, most versions have started to taste the same, but Llama’s locoto pepper sauce has a curiously sweet aftertaste that'll linger once your tongue returns to life. It still burns, but with a distinctive fruity flavor. And unlike the specials, this sandwich never leaves the menu. BLP didn’t need to make this much noise to get our attention—a walk-up window with a couple of picnic tables out front can be great without any fanfare. But the sidewalk scene is part of the fun. If you’re lucky, it'll turn into a full-fledged block party, sometimes with an actual DJ, dancers, and people passing around water ice. And, even if not, the food alone feels festive. Every time we crack open another salteña, we find ourselves making a little noise, too.
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