Mumbo sauce or mambo sauce is a condiment found in Chinese carryout restaurants in Washington DC. The red sauce is similar to a barbecue sauce but sweet and tangy, the sauce is put on chicken wings, french fries, and fried rice. Its origin and ingredients are subject to great dispute.[1] Most suggest the sauce is unique to Washington DC[2] while others suggest it emerged from a barbecue restaurant in Chicago run by Argia B. Collins, Sr. Several references are made to it in the history of buffalo wings. Mumbo sauce can be contrasted with Asian brown sauces.
Washingtonians who are well into their 60's and 70's will remember mumbo sauce being sold at a black-owned chicken wings restaurant called Wings and Things in the late 50's and early 60's. It was also sold at the old Eastern Market lunch counter as a condiment. Shortly thereafter, local DC Asian food restaurants adopted the tasty sauce as their own and began selling unique versions across the metropolitan area.
Capital City Mumbo Sauce - A shopping and historical resource