Asian salad dressing

One kind. I invented this. I await notification of my nomination for the Nobel prize in food inventiveness. * taps foot, waits * It has various manifestations on the theme.

Soy sauce moderated with sugar, here tamari, a deeper more intense form of soy (shoyu), used very moderately and supplemented with fish sauce for saltiness (with flavor and body). Mirin (sweet saki) instead of sugar. Sometimes with toasted sesame, sometimes not. Sometimes with grapefruit juice instead of rice vinegar. Powder ginger and dehydrated garlic work just fine, a little different, but fine.

I should note the fish sauce is basically anchovy soaked in water. That's pretty much all.  At the Asian market, there's a plethora of fish sauces but they're all basically the same thing. I'm using the three crab type.   Some are fermented, putting you in mind of the favorite sauce of Ancient Romans, that if you were to reconstruct today would make you wretch.  They used it like catsup on fries, like malted vinegar on fish and chips, like mayonnaise on chicken salad, like salsa on tamales, like ... you get the idea, it was their favorite condiment and I can only imagine it was used sparingly, as the fish sauce is here.

The soy sauce turns the whole batch of dressing an unattractive dark color, which is why I never serve it. It can be omitted and substituted with fish sauce or with salt or with an anchovy, but I like soy sauce (and tamari) and I don't mind the color, and it is my invention, so I learned to accept it. At times I crave it. Like now.