A quick reminder that - in a general sense - soy sauce is NOT NECESSARY for a dish to be "Asian", whatever "Asian" means.
Ditto, that adding soy sauce to a dish does NOT immediately make it "Asian", whatever "Asian" means.
For that matter, as an example of a "typically-thought-to-be-Asian" dish, I ALMOST NEVER add soy sauce to fried rice. It simply detracts from the flavors of the other ingredients in so many cases. BUT - so many folks feel that they NEED to add soy sauce to fried rice (or to anything else thought to be "Asian") to make it "authentic". That is simply incorrect.
BTW - I, for myself, find it curious how "Tamari" soy sauce occupies such an exalted state in Western discussions of "Asian" food. I don't find it anything special, especially as "Tamari" by itself does not guarantee "gluten-free" status which some folks tout. The many other grades of soy sauce seem to have more features going for it especially if one samples the brands/grades produced by the producers themselves.
