Asian sauces, dressings, marinades

I'm realizing, I probably make Asian dishes more often than Indian ones. I
think it might be because they're easier when you're cooking for just one or two people. I
don't have pre-made sauces, although I do often use pre-made Thai curry pastes. I use the following ingredients a great deal:

fish sauce (nam pla)
raw soy sauce (nama shoyu)
rice vinegar (I have one that's flavored with yuzu!)
sesame oil
peanut oil
olive oil

chilli oil

rice wine (mirin)
red and green Thai curry pastes
fermented black beans and fermented hot mung beans
tamarind

And I add other ingredients I have at the time, like fresh citrus juice, palm sugar, fresh peanut butter, etc.

I try to make sure that all flavors are in the mix -- sweet, spicy, salty, umami (the taste of protein), tangy, and aromatic/bitter.

So I can make a Thai dressing with peanut oil, palm sugar, bird's eye chillies, fish sauce, lemongrass and lime leaves, lime juice, and galangal. I can make a peanut dressing with a bit of maple syrup, chillies, nama shoyu, peanut butter, mirin or rice vinegar, tamarind, and ginger and/or garlic. I can stir-fry vegetables and/or seafood in sesame oil, sesame seeds, red chilli flakes, hot fermented mung bean paste, nama shoyu, mirin, ginger, scallions, and garlic.

And I vary it up. Maybe instead of mirin, I'll use fresh tangerine juice and zest. Etc.

If you like this kind of thing, check out Mark Bittman's blog in the NYTimes. His goal in life seems to be to get Americans back to cooking without recipes, which used to be a widespread skill but has fallen away. Bittman will write things like, "Take some pita pockets, break them into little pieces, mix them into a salad of chopped cucumber, tomatoes, olive oil, lemon, and red onions or shallots. Call it fattoush."

I think's it great because I think about cooking in a very similar way -- you don't need things to be exact for most dishes, you can take a concept and make substitutions or customize it, and with a good repertoire of oils, vinegars, condiments, herbs, spices, and base ingredients like onions, ginger, garlic, and tomatoes, you can make a meal out of what happens to be in your fridge in terms of main ingredients.