Why Are Critics Obsessed with Zohran Mamdani's Eating Habits?
They might just not have anything else to say.
Early voting has begun in New York City’s mayoral race, and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s opponents have little to no dirt on him, sometimes resorting to Islamophobia in its absence. Critics have also taken to desperately scrutinizing his eating habits, most recently attacking him for eating at a sushi restaurant with average New York City prices.
First, Mamdani sparked what the New York Times called a “minor food scandal” in March when he posted a photo of himself eating a burrito on the subway. Even supporters told him that he was out of line.
“Imma vote for you big bro but letting the subway air touch your food is crazy,” said one social media user.
Mamdani was unperturbed. “I hear you, I see you, and if you’re a burrito on the Q train, I eat you,” he said in a video.
Next, Mamdani saw racist attacks for eating rice with his hands.
The late Charlie Kirk posted:
“Zohran Mamdani has an Ivy professor dad and a famous director mom. He knows how to eat with utensils. But he chooses to eat rice with his bare hands to signal that he is from the Third World and isn’t Western. It’s a calculated stunt, just like him constantly changing his accent. Honestly, that’s a lot worse and more disturbing than if he just authentically ate that way. One is backwards. The other shows his contempt for our culture.”
Supporters pointed out that eating rice with your hands is a common practice in India, where Mamdani’s mother is from. Others pointed out that Americans eat burgers, wings, tacos, and plenty of other foods with their hands.
Funnily enough, former Mayor Bill De Blasio experienced #forkgate when he was seen eating pizza with a fork and knife in 2014.
Also worth noting is that independent candidate Andrew Cuomo saw his own food scandal when he called a bacon egg and cheese a “bacon cheese and egg” and said he stays away from bagels, something that simply makes him sound weird and out of touch.
“What is your bagel order or favorite breakfast sandwich?” asked Emma G. Fitzsimmons at the New York Times.
He responded, “Bacon, cheese and egg on an English muffin, and then I try to take off the bacon, but I don’t really take off the bacon. The bagel I try to stay away from, to keep my girlish figure.” (Surely bacon would be the healthier cut.)
Mamdani’s critics have focused on Islamophobic attacks and criticisms of his stance on Israel. “God forbid, another 9/11, can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo said last week.
Looking for ammunition, his critics turned to food once again. Actor and podcaster Michael Rapaport posted photos of Mamdani and his wife eating sushi last week.
He wrote: “How’s a so-called ‘working class’ mayoral candidate like Zohran Mamdani eating at OMEN SUSHI tonight — one of the priciest joints in NYC? This clown lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in Queens but dines like a diplomat on a Qatar-funded per diem. Who’s paying for that toro, ‘Zoron the Moron’? You ain’t working class — you’re fraud class.”
Entrees at Omen Sushi range from about $26 to $38, with more expensive options like $93 wagyu steak and a $145 tasting menu. These are generally in line with New York City prices, making the restaurant far from “one of the priciest joints in NYC.”
This attack is clearly grasping at straws in the waning moments of the race. Mamdani is a candidate who vows to stand up for the working class and someone who has positioned himself as a person much more in touch with the average New Yorker, and now he is not allowed to eat dinner because of that.
“‘I can’t believe this guy took his wife out for a nice dinner! Is this who you want for mayor New York?’ You guys are so desperate it’s just sad,” one person posted in response.
Food has been a focus of this race because voters want to know who Mamdani is as a person. Knowing that, his critics have seized on his down to earth persona — because they don’t have anything else to say.