How Zohran Mamdani Built a Campaign Around Food
The late-night visit to Kabab King was ostensibly for a campaign interview. But the minute the food hit the table, Zohran Mamdani became lost in the chicken biryani in front of him, digging into the plate with gleeful abandon.
After a few minutes, a light dawned. He looked up and apologized for not sharing. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “As you can tell, I’m hungry.”
He continued to apologize throughout the meal at Kabab King, a 24-hour restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens, that he’s been visiting since high school. The next day, a campaign aide texted her regrets.
The Democratic nominee and front-runner for mayor, Mr. Mamdani is keenly aware how attentive New Yorkers are to how their politicians interact with food, and how judgmental they can be. The former mayor Bill de Blasio was mocked in 2014 for eating a pizza with a fork and knife rather than folded and by hand in the New York style. The current mayor, Eric Adams, faced a similar scolding when he was spotted eating fish after professing to follow a plant-based diet.
But no mayoral candidate’s relationship to food has been more scrutinized or showcased than Mr. Mamdani’s, often by his own choice. A devotee of delis and bodegas who once filmed a music video at Kabab King under the rap moniker “Mr. Cardamom,” he is harnessing food as both campaign tool and policy plank.
