Mamdani’s New York (restaurants)
As a food writer, I always pay attention to how political candidates eat, but it was impossible not to hang on every word during Zohran Mamdani’s run: At every step of the way, he centered food. There was one moment in particular that made me sit up straight. In an interview with The New Yorker, Mamdani was asked about his favorite restaurants. I was waiting for him to mention the usual names, or promote one of his friend’s restaurants, when he brought up the Thai restaurant in Astoria where he orders goi neur, a raw beef salad, for takeout. “Damn,” I thought. “This guy knows ball!” I ate at several of his favorites for this week’s newsletter, making for one of my best months of eating in recent memory.
Where Zohran ate in high school …Kabab King in Jackson Heights is the beating heart of the Zohran Mamdani foodieverse: an all-night Pakistani restaurant that Mr. Mamdani not only frequented as a teenager, but also filmed a music video at as the rapper “Mr. Cardamom.” I must have passed under its neon sign dozens of times over the years, but this month I finally walked in, noting the “Zohran for New York City” poster in the front window. I zipped by the cluttered takeout counter on the ground floor, where skewered kababs are cooked to order in a tandoor oven, and found a place in the quieter upstairs cafeteria, high-ceilinged like a ballroom with a few groups scattered here and there. I washed my hands and dug them right into a heap of biryani, strewn with peppers, carrots and a generous portion of goat for $15. Afterward, I walked across the street to Haideri Paan, as Mr. Mamdani suggested in that same New Yorker interview, and purchased a few paan to redeem my breath. This was my first but not last time trying paan, a chromatic mess of tobacco and other aromatics wrapped in betel leaf at top speed, and I loved the sensation: each bite syrupy and intense, tasting a bit like how incense smells. Kabab King, 73-01 37th Road (Broadway), Jackson Heights Haideri Paan, 72-08 Broadway (72nd Street), Jackson Heights
Where Zohran starts his day …This summer, thousands of supporters of Mamdani embarked on a cross-borough scavenger hunt that took them from Tammany Hall to a municipal building named for another mayor who was at one time a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. (Hint: It’s on Centre Street.) The seventh and final stop was Little Flower Cafe, a halal coffee shop in Astoria. Little Flower is the kind of place you’d be thrilled to live down the street from, but also wouldn’t mind commuting to on one train after another, as I did on a recent weekday at 8 a.m. It has a wonderful food menu, on which you could probably point to any spot at random and end up pleased. This most recent time, I made a full breakfast with one of its UFO-shaped firni doughnuts, swollen with cardamom custard, and a merguez breakfast burrito that seriously surpassed my expectations. Simply put: It ruled. 25-35 36th Avenue (28th Street), Astoria
Where Zohran orders takeout …Finally, let me tell you how I ended up crying on German television. I was eating lunch alone toward the back of Pye Boat Noodle, a Thai restaurant in Astoria, when the restaurant’s chef Chitphol Siriboon burst into the dining room with a film crew and pointed a finger at me. “That’s the dish right there,” he said. “He’s eating it.” Before I knew it, I was being interviewed for a segment airing on German television next year about Mr. Mamdani’s favorite foods. If you catch that segment, you’ll see me taking a few shaky bites of goi neur, an incendiary, raw meat salad that Mr. Mamdani occasionally orders for takeout. Say what you will about ordering raw meat to-go: I loved the barely thawed cubes of beef that crunch like frozen grapes between your teeth and the many sliced chiles that flow like magma through your digestive tract. (The only relief is a few sliced cucumbers.) It’s tempting to compare goi neur to beef tartare, but the taste is far more interesting, punched up with red onion and lots of lime. After the end of a chile went down the wrong pipe, I understood why Mr. Mamdani eats it in the privacy of his home: Tears welled in the corners of my eyes for all of Hamburg to see. 35-13 Broadway (36th Street), Astoria Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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