VISION OF THE CHINESE STREET MARKET COMMUNITY
The Chinese Street Market DC community is a place to share your nostalgic food memories or pursue your cultural passion and cultural identity. We strive to serve as trustworthy connectors for food and culture, removing language barriers for better cultural understanding.
The DC area is rich with a multi-generational East Asian diaspora, and starting with Chinese sub-cultures, we work to introduce all East Asian food makers to a larger audience. Our goal is to help tell their stories within the context of their traditions and traditional multi-generational recipes. We do this by showcasing their stories on our online platform and offline through popups and events.
The inaugural street market, held in September 2019, was a special event that drew over 3,000 visitors to Downtown DC in just one afternoon. In 2021, Chinese Street Market DC was voted by Washington City Paper’ Best of DC poll as the runner-up for Best-At-Home-Meals, coming in just after a Michelin rated restaurant. Today, you can enjoy this unique culture experience by joining our online community or through our in-person popups at local farmers markets and special events. The ready-to-cook packaged products often incorporate produce from our fellow farmers market vendors, which allows CSMDC to root diasporic food stories in freshness, sustainability, and the Mid-Atlantic food system.
In 2023, Chinese Street Market DC has expanded its grocery offerings to other Chinese regional noodles, sauces, dumplings, and frozen meal kits. It decided to move all the food products under the name Dàn Dàn Boy™, the very own in-house brand of CSMDC, because now each of these food items has its own following, which makes Dàn Dàn Boy™ a standalone brand outside CSMDC. During the same year, the DC-based food hall Union Market has brought Chinese Street Market DC on as their new market tenant. At Union Market, CSMDC is planning to offer freshly made, curated regional Chinese dishes under the name Dàn Dàn Boy™. This will allow CSMDC to introduce Chinese regional dishes to a wider audience and further develop the in-house food brand Dàn Dàn Boy™, while CSMDC will continue building its community through dumpling diplomacy classes and cultural events. Join us in learning, connecting, sharing, and preserving this culture experience and community.
HISTORY
Over the last 30 years, the Washington, D.C. Chinatown area underwent a drastic gentrification process that caused property values to increase significantly. Many East Asian-American restaurant proprietors and small business owners were forced to sell, close, or move out to suburban areas offering cheaper commercial space.
We here at the Chinese Street Market are striving to build a community that supports the preservation of Chinese culture in Chinatown. To that end, we’re starting with bringing D.C. a Chinese street market atmosphere pop-up, where local vendors will offer irresistible snacks and eats based on East Asian street-food concepts, including Dan Dan Noodles, BBQ Skewers and Ma Po Tofu, and many more! Recurring every week on a seasonal basis, we hope that this cultural and culinary event will help revitalize the Chinatown spirit through our effort especially after the pandemic, as well as the historical and meaningful culture of the area.
We are gathering your support for the Chinese Street Market Pop-up DC. Please join us by following our social media or submit your email below.