Easy Vietnamese Basic Dipping Sauce

This basic sauce is almost as ubiquitous in Southeast Asian cooking as catsup is in ours. Called Nuoc cham ("nook chahm"), it can be made in many versions, some cooked, some uncooked. Many nuoc cham recipes use a commercial preparation called "fish sauce"; it's made from fermented anchovies, and smells awful but tastes good. However, substituting soy sauce (which the Vietnamese themselves also sometimes do) makes the recipe vegan and it still is tasty.