During the 2025 New York City mayoral election, social media was filled with videos of the now-mayor, Zohran Mamdani, listing his favorite places to eat in Queens. The recommendations ranged from hidden gems, like a Bangladeshi halal steam table spot in Astoria, to neighborhood favorites, like Jackson Heights’s Kabab King. This was a very successful campaign strategy to characterize Mamdani as a New Yorker who lives—and eats—like his constituents.
It was also a gold mine of solid food recs.
So, on an unseasonably cold and snowy February day, Natural Selections decided to take the new mayor up on his suggestions and experience a Saturday in Astoria, courtesy of Zohran Mamdani.
First things first
Our day started from the Rockefeller University campus. In the spirit of Mamdani’s pro-public transit policies, we took the R train from the Lexington Av/59 St station. We got off at the 36 Av station in Astoria, only a short walk from our first destination: Little Flower Cafe, a halal coffee shop in Astoria.
Little Flower is definitely not a hidden gem. On one of the coldest days of the year, it was packed to the brim with Astoria locals enjoying a post-noon brunch inside the warm, minimalist dining room. We ate our pastries and drank our chai lattes huddled in the corner, eyeing the burnished concrete tables for an open spot that never materialized.
Some of the highlights included the firni donut, a play on the classic Indian dessert of custardy rice pudding with cardamom; the turmeric bun, which was perfectly spiced, if a bit dense; and the persimmon danish. The chai latte was just the right amount of sweet and cinnamony but could have been a bit more flavorful overall, and the coffee was significantly better than what you can get from Great Performances (or your lab’s coffee maker).
Overall, Little Flower is an excellent place for weekend brunch or late afternoon coffee, if you are looking to take a quick, several-hour break from your experiments.
A brief interlude
We interrupted our regularly scheduled Astoria day for a brief excursion to Jackson Heights to try Haideri Paan. None of us knew what paan was. In retrospect, not doing any research was somewhat of a mistake.
For the similarly uninformed reader, paan is a Southeast Asian digestive made from betel leaves. It can be filled with things like candied fruit, rose, raisins, cardamom, fennel, roasted coconut, sprinkles, and a variety of other sweet or aromatic foods. It’s meant to be chewed whole, which we learned from a very friendly local as we attempted to pick open the betel leaf wrapping, and can either be swallowed or spit out. With its combination of sweet, bitter, and aromatic flavor, paan makes for a great palate cleanser, but it is not very well suited for lunch—as we had originally intended.
Slightly ashamed of our cultural ignorance, we took the train back to Astoria to try a different lunch spot.
And finally, lunch
Back in Astoria, we got off the R train at the 36 St station to have lunch at Pye Boat Noodle. At this neighborhood favorite Thai restaurant, we managed to squeeze ourselves around a table in the back.
We started our meal with an order of chive pancakes that were expertly crispy on the outside and perfectly gooey on the inside. This fried goodness unfortunately overshadowed our second appetizer, a relatively bland fried tofu with sweet and sour sauce.
The panang curry was a big hit among the main courses. It was aromatic, just the right amount of spicy, and came topped with the most perfectly cooked over-easy egg, which melted into the jasmine rice that accompanied the dish. The tofu pad kee mao was also a table favorite. If you order the Sukhothai noodles, however, do not repeat our mistake of asking for the wide noodles instead of the rice ones—or letting a single person’s opinions sway your whole group. (Maybe we shouldn’t renounce the frigidity of rugged individualism just yet . . . )
We also had to order what was perhaps the most controversial out of all of Mr. Mamdani’s food recommendations: the goi neur. This salad made up of tiny cubes of cold, raw beef abundantly seasoned with spicy chilies is not everyone’s cup of tea. But some of us enjoyed how its tangy taste blended with the chewiness of the raw meat and would consider ordering it again on a less freezing day.
One last thing
Having finally succeeded at eating lunch, we decided to head to our fourth and final food establishment. We took the N train to its last stop at Astoria-Ditmars Blvd and headed to Qahwah House, a Yemeni coffee shop. Right in the entry, a large map on the wall of all the routes coffee beans have traveled over the last millennium reminded us that coffee was first cultivated in Yemen. The owners of Qahwah House must have traveled one of those very routes so that we could have a warm pour-over on a cold February day in New York City.
Other than the coffee, we also tried the Adeni chai, which was nicely balanced and came in a big glass pot that purportedly served two, but in reality was more than enough for four people. The coffee house itself was surprisingly large, with a backyard space that seemed like it would have been very nice in better weather. The inside is also spacious and quiet—perfect for a Saturday afternoon of pretending to work on your paper while really just people-watching.
Once you have successfully written at least two sentences of your manuscript, you can head to Ditmars Thrift Shop Donation around the corner. This wildly eclectic store has something for everyone. We personally found a breathtakingly hideous sequined dress, some cat-eye sunglasses, and a wooden plaque with a live-laugh-love-esque message of encouragement (“…your mind is insanely cool…”)—perfect for the senior grad student in your life.
Sated, warm from the chai, and armed with a myriad of discounted trinkets, we rode the N train back to Lexington Av/59 St, thinking that the new mayor might know a thing or two about the city—at least when it comes to food.