Mumbo Sauce

[jeffmhunt]

Don, I saw this discussion in the Shopping and Cooking topic, but I thought my taste test might merit its own discussion in the Restaurants and Dining topic. As always, I defer to your expertise if you think this post should be shuffled elsewhere.

This coming weekend, inspired by this video and article, some friends and I are heading out to compare several versions of mumbo/mambo sauce.

I made a map of 11 restaurants and plotted a course that will hit 7 of them in about 4 miles of walking, weather permitting: http://bit.ly/mumbomap

I also made a simple scorecard that you're free to use: http://bit.ly/mumbodoc

Of course I'll share the results once we complete the taste test, but I wanted to check with the group to see if I missed any places, can improve the scorecard, or if you have any general advice for how to best enjoy this local specialty.

 

[Bob Wells]

Funny thing about mambo sauce -- the only place I've ever had it was way the heck out in Hamilton VA, at the late, lamented Planet Wayside, the first eatery featured in the WaPo's late, lamented Crummy, But Good feature. It was great as an accompaniment to PW's awesome potatoes.

Now that we have a BonChon, no need for me to venture to a bulletproof-glass place (did enough of that in college too).

[jderryup]

Thanks to the original poster for a well presented plan of attack.  God speed.  Good crispy wings and mumbo sauce are the best way to judge Americanized Chinese restaurants.

 

[jeffmhunt]

Hey all, the runner-up was Henry's Soul Cafe (my personal choice) and the overall winner was Eddie Leonard. Howard China and Full Yum were pretty good, Jerry's and Andy's less so. Yum's was in the middle of frying up a party order of 150 wings, so we had to skip them.

We were surprised by the variation across mumbo sauces - at worst, it was glorified ketchup, and at best, something like traditional* American-Chinese sweet and sour sauce or Chick-fil-A's Polynesian sauce. Eddie Leonard's had an almost fermented "zing" that didn't necessarily taste great on its own, but complemented the chicken quite nicely.

I admit that I expected some of these places to be pulling their chicken out from under a heat lamp, but every single one fried it up fresh. The quality of the meat varied (best hands-down was Henry's), but the only straight-up bad wings came from Andy's, which used no discernible seasoning and actually burned the meat.

It was a very hot day, but I'm glad we walked the full 4+ mile route mapped above - got to know the District and a few neighborhoods a little better. Stopping at Anxo for a drink halfway through the taste test was like visiting another planet.

*whatever that means in this context

[DanielK]

Great job, Jeff!

Can you answer the question from the discussion above - were the wings themselves flavored/marinated at any of the places, beyond salt and pepper in the batter?

[jeffmhunt]

15 hours ago, DanielK said:

were the wings themselves flavored/marinated at any of the places, beyond salt and pepper in the batter?

If there was any additional seasoning/marinade, it was very minimal - some (most?) places didn't even seem to use much of a batter beyond flour. Henry's (top right above) had the most substantial batter and complex seasoning, but even that was fairly subtle.

[DonRocks]

On 9/18/2017 at 3:20 PM, jeffmhunt said:

This coming weekend, inspired by this video and article, some friends and I are heading out to compare several versions of mumbo/mambo sauce.
...
Of course I'll share the results once we complete the taste test, but I wanted to check with the group to see if I missed any places, can improve the scorecard, or if you have any general advice for how to best enjoy this local specialty.

I think you should call yourselves "The Mumbo Wings."

(I read the 1989 novel, "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" - purely because of the amazing cover. It was pretty close to being *terrible*, and I can't believe it won the Pulitzer Prize that year; I couldn't bear to see the film.)