The entire dining room of I Love Paraguay was packed on a recent Saturday night. Surrounded by tangles of colorful flowers and vines adorning the walls, families and groups of friends dug into empanadas and parrillada (a grilled meat platter). A harpist serenaded two birthday parties.
For the 18 years since its opening in Sunnyside, Queens, the restaurant has remained dedicated to traditional Paraguayan food customs. It’s one of only a handful of Paraguayan restaurants in New York, whose scarcity reflects the community’s small numbers: only 4,210 people or 0.05% of the NYC population are Paraguayan.
It honors San Juan in June with month-long specials like chicharô hu’itï (fried pork with toasted cornflour). It facilitates the August 1st ritual of drinking carrulim that’s believed to cleanse the spirit and welcome health and fortune. I Love Paraguay brews its own with sugarcane liquor and ruda, an herb. It’s just closed out its October tradition of serving jopara (bean and white corn soup). And every day, it’s doling out classic Paraguayan soups, pastries, sandwiches, and pastas loaded with native ingredients like beef and cassava executed so well that the owners of the family-run institution say that the president of Paraguay has visited the restaurant.
In Asunción, the restaurant’s owner Nancy Ojeda fell in love with cooking as she watched her mom make the “most delicious food” for the family of five. She went on to study under renowned masters of Paraguayan cooking: Maria de los Angeles Villamayor and Aida de Hutteman.
Through the 1990s, she opened a French restaurant, a cantina (school-side snack shop for students) and a hamburger shop in Asunción. In 2002, she immigrated to the U.S. to fulfill even bigger dreams for her children. She first joined the Paraguayan American community in Westchester and in 2004 opened Little Paraguay: a deli with easy grab-and-go foods like pastries, sandwiches, and soups.
But Ojeda wanted to go even bigger and, in 2007, she launched I Love Paraguay, adding hot entrees to the same menu. She was recounting her business journey on a recent Monday afternoon and just as she was about to list her bestsellers, a couple, wheeling luggage, graciously interrupted her on their way out.
“Every time I come [to New York], I have to stop here,” Rafael Quinteros told Ojeda. “There’s nothing like it.”
This was his last stop before heading back home to Tampa, Florida. And like his other visits in the past seven years, he lugged a brown takeout bag containing his favorites: sopa Paraguaya (corncake) and marineras de carne (battered fried beef).
“People come here from all different parts of the country, and they want to take a piece of Paraguay home,” said Ojeda. “It’s like a consulate here.”
But this “consulate” also has a kitchen churning out some impeccably prepared food.
The hearts of palm empanadas are juicy with light, melty mozzarella and tangy from the palmitos.
The payagua mascada (cassava fritter) is made with beef blended so finely it’s hard to see but easy to taste. A thin, crackly crust holds together the soft mashed interior.
The marineritas are pillows of soft, fluffy dough around flattened pieces of beef.
For the house-made cocido (a caffeinated herbal drink usually consumed instead of coffee), yerba mate leaves are burned with sugar for a sweet, caramelized taste that rounds out the bitter, grassy herbs.
The pasta dishes here reflect a cultural fusion sparked by Italian immigration to Paraguay. The house-made gnocchi is served with a hearty beef stew featuring carrots, green and red peppers, tomatoes, garlic and big chunks of beef.
“Yeah, we’re big on meat,” explained Elizabeth Ojeda, restaurant manager and Nancy’s daughter-in-law.
In addition to the holiday specials, Ojeda keeps things exciting for customers. On a recent Saturday, the vori vori (soup with small balls of corn flour and cheese) sold out. Same for Monday’s minced beef soup.
“For me the most important thing is excellence,” said Nancy Ojeda. “I am very demanding of myself. I’m very perfectionist.”
That applies to the food — she won’t send out dishes that don’t meet her standard — but also the business.
“Running a restaurant is serious. It’s not just about opening a restaurant because you watched your mom cook.” She handles accounting, marketing, and e-commerce.
But the commitment to excellence stems from another mission that she holds dearly. And it has to do with the intentionality of employing a harp player, the national instrument, the blown-out posters of Paraguay’s landscapes and waterfalls, and the welcome sign in Guarani, a native language of Paraguay, at the counter: “Eguahé porá.”
“It’s about preserving traditions, remembering our roots,” said Ojeda, “especially when it’s easy to lose them in a new home in the U.S.”
