Friends ask me about the sauce for Chinese dumplings. The dumplings’ filling is itself flavorful and savory. You can enjoy them without any dipping sauce, like my kids do. My husband likes to eat them with Thai Sweet Chili sauce and I like light soy sauce. Some Chinese love to eat them with Chinese vinegar (black, not white like Western vinegar). Yes! Chinese like to eat vinegar. We use “eat vinegar” to imply a person getting jealous. You can combine both light soy sauce and dark vinegar, add a little sesame oil, chopped garlic, green onion and what is available in your kitchen. Chili sauce, chili oil and cilantro add more flavor. I love some Asian cuisine that add lime or lemon juice and fresh chili pepper. There is no right or wrong, and no certain ratio for the ingredients. A lot of the Chinese cooking books I bought in China don’t tell you how many spoons or cups, you just add the portions as you like based on your sense and enjoy. Below are a few simple homemade sauce recipes from the web. Hope they help.
I put the Chinese Chinkiang sauce (zhen jiang xiang cu in Chinese) and the light soy sauce in the picture below, since both are widely used brands in China. You can find them easily at any Asian supper market.