I produced this video on D.C.’s semi-famous Mumbo Sauce, also known as Mambo Sauce to some. Most of the home-grown folks I talked to have known about the sauce for years and grew up getting it from their favorite Asian carryout restaurant. But the transplants who have only moved to D.C. in recent years have never even heard of the stuff. Arsha Jones, who recently launched a business making a bottled version of Mumbo, makes the point that if she were moving in from a different place, she probably wouldn’t go to the seedy carryout joints either. And those are the places where the sauce is found. And the sauce is always different depending on where you go because most of the carryout restaurants make it themselves from a secret recipe. It’s a story about a funky sub-culture that thrives in this city but remains a secret to so many.
