Chicken wings doused in mumbo sauce, DC's red-orange sweet-tangy condiment, served as the closing dish at the city's carryout counters from Petworth to Anacostia.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Mumbo sauce (also written mambo) is a sweet, tangy, faintly hot red-orange sauce that took hold in Washington DC's Black carryout counters from the 1960s onward. It probably evolved from a Chicago-style barbecue sauce, brought south by Argia B Collins, but the DC version drifted sweeter and tangier, more ketchup-and-pineapple than smoke-and-vinegar. By the 1980s it had become the city's defining condiment for wings, fried chicken, fried rice and french fries from Wings-N-Things on Capitol Hill, Yum's, Danny's Sub and dozens of carryouts. In 2011 a Chicago-based company tried to trademark Mumbo Sauce; the DC counters fought back, and the name remains generic. Capital City Mumbo Sauce, founded 2011 in Anacostia, bottles the DC house version for grocery sale.
Tip from the editors. Mumbo sauce is meant to be sweet first, tangy second; if your batch reads too vinegary, stir in another 2 tablespoons of sugar and another tablespoon of pineapple.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Henry's Soul Cafe in Washington DC is the U Street soul-food counter from Henry Smith since 1968, with sweet potato pie sold by the slice and the carryout fried chicken and mumbo wings.
Try: Sweet potato pie, fried chicken, mumbo wings
Tip: The sweet potato pie ships nationally; buy the whole pie at the U Street counter to take home.
Florida Avenue Grill in Washington DC is the LeDroit Park 1944 diner with breakfast all day, the city's cheapest soul food sit-down with eggs-grits-biscuit plates under $15.
Try: Breakfast plate with eggs, grits, biscuit ($13)
Tip: Breakfast runs all day; the half-smoke breakfast plate at $13 is the editorial value meal of the menu.
Oohh's & Aahh's in Washington DC is the U Street soul-food counter from Oji Abbott since 2005, with mumbo sauce wings, fried catfish and the carryout three-piece plate as the editorial format.
Try: Soul food with mumbo sauce wings
Tip: The fried catfish and shrimp with mumbo sauce is the menu standout; takeaway runs faster than the dining-room queue.
More cities are in research. Want mumbo sauce wings covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.