american d.c. the way you desire to. in the nonwestern tradition, art is not something you look at the wall, it s the way you live your life. its food you eat. it s street art, it s music, it s clothing. it s the way you speak. it s the way you do your hair. it s the way you cook your food. we live culture. so maybe the evolution of d.c. is coming at the cost of cultural change, but i m grateful that the culture of the streets where i grew up is being maintained. and there is no denying that part of the gentrification of the city is creating a more dynamic and worldly food scene. once desolate and boarded up neighborhoods like h street are becoming hubbs for ambitious and business savvy restauranteurs from all over the world. and tonight chef eric bruener yang invited me to his restaurant, maketo with young chefs from the neighborhood. what s cool about this table is peter and jr here, we all own
thank you. here in d.c., we never boil crab. instead, we cover it in an enormous amount of old bay seasoning and steam it with beer. when i tell people in d.c. we grew up eating crab, they re like what? i thought that was a maryland thing. no, d.c. is right there. yeah. so you grew up close to here? yeah, i grew up in southeast. this is southwest. the wharf was the original fish market in d.c. d.c. actually has a very long history, especially of like black fishermen. black people have had a really big stake in the fishing-crab industry. this is, in my opinion, one of the great seafood markets in the u.s. we think of seattle and the guys throwing. yeah, yeah, yeah. this is as iconic, but for blue crab. seattle turned into it a show. this is traditions. if you come or go. that good? oh, my. oh, now we re talking. thank you. all right. that smell, huh? there is nothing like it in the
option. at the time, it was the worst school, the lowest graduation rates, lowest gpas. this is night and day. they renovate everything in this school. just seeing these books here to me is a big deal. romeo and juliet. i don t think i ever actually read that. when i came to this school, the ultimate goal was get carlton through high school. get him to graduate from high school. so i sat down with this lady and she said well, you need to take some elective classes. and i looked at her, man, the only thing i can do is cook. and there is a home expo class. i signed up for that. there was maybe two guys, three guys in it. it was here that i met chef ian barkley. he was one of the first black pastry chefs in america. at the time he was volunteering for a program in d.c. that gave inner city kids an opportunity to develop a year in the culinary arts. it all started here.
so maybe the evolution of d.c. is coming at the cost of cultural change, but i m grateful that the culture of the streets where i grew up is being maintained. and there is no denying that part of the gentrification of the city is creating a more dynamic and worldly food scene. once desolate and boarded up neighborhoods like h street are becoming hubs for ambitious and business savvy restauranteurs from all over the world. and tonight chef erik bruner-yang invited me to his restaurant, maketto with young chefs from the neighborhood. what s cool about this table is peter and jr here, we all own restaurants on the same street, h street. from fifth street to where we are now, this used to be the most vibrant black-owned retail corridor in washington, d.c. we put this retail store here to remind people that this was the history of the place, and that s why we did it. that s fantastic. on the menu is a fusion of umami rich taiwanese dishes mixed with
that s part of the beauty of the chocolate city, i think. one of those things that is a delicious, chocolate bubble that is d.c. i was very much raised in a black culture bubble. and you know, go-go was like the sound of our streets. and for those of you have never heard of d.c. go-go, it s an experience like nothing else in the world. its beats can be found in rap and hip-hop hood, but its origins started in d.c. i hear you were in a go-go band too. yeah. which one? we named it after our neighborhood. yeah. it was 41st street. i love it. i love it. that s very much on brand, because it s very much a neighborhood center. and there is a whole movement to sort of remember black d.c. s music and culture. there is a gentleman who is part of the go-go economy, donald campbell sold go-go tapes on the