Dips

A dip or dipping sauce is a common condiment for many types of food. Dips are used to add flavor to a food such as pita bread, dumplings, crackers, cut-up raw vegetables, seafood, cubed pieces of meat and cheese, potato chips, tortilla chips, or falafel. Unlike other sauces, instead of applying the sauce to the food, the food is typically put into or dipped into the dipping sauce (hence the name). Dips are commonly used for finger foods and other easily held foods.

Some types of dip include:

• Aioli - Garlic version of mayonnaise.
• Barbecue sauce - A Common sauce often used for grilled meat, and increasingly for non-grilled meat.
• Blue cheese dressing - It is commonly used as a dip for raw vegetables or Buffalo wings (named after the city of Buffalo, New York, where they originated. Alternate names are Wings, Hot wings & Chicken wings). It is usually made from mayonnaise, sour cream, blue cheese, milk, vinegar, onion powder, dry mustard, and garlic powder.
• Chili con queso - A dip of melted cheese and chili peppers used in Tex Mex cuisine (referred to as Mexican cuisine in "Texas") with tortilla chips.
• Chili oil - Used as a dipping sauce for meat and dim sum (name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea).
• Chocolate - A dip for various fruits, doughnuts, profiteroles (cream puff) and marshmallows (a confection).
• Chutney - Used with snacks like deep fried samosas and pakoras. Any of a wide variety of sauces with origins in the sub-continent of India, from freshly chopped herbs in yoghurt, to bottled, spiced fruit mixtures.
• Clam dip - A kind of condiment for dipping crackers and chips.
• Fish sauce (Garum) / Nam pla (Thai name) - The fermented fish equivalent of soy sauce, used in southeastern Asian cuisines as a dip for snacks and other foods.
• Fondue - A melted cheese sauce, which rose in popularity in the U.S. and Europe during the 1970s.
• French onion dip (California dip) - A combination of sour cream, minced onions and onion salt.
• Fry sauce - A dip made from ketchup and mayonnaise, eaten with french fries and onion rings.
• Guacamole - A Mexican dip of avocados, onions and chili peppers, commonly eaten with tortilla chips.
• Honey - A a common dip for french fries and chicken.
• Hummus - a dip made of ground chick peas and sesame tahini (sesame paste) with spices and lemon juice.
• Ketchup (also called catsup) - Often used with french fries, onion rings, and a wide variety of other foods.
• Marinara sauce - A tomato sauce served with breadsticks, pizza, etc.
• Mayonnaise - The European egg and oil emulsion that is not only the basis for many dips, but is on its own a dip for cold chicken; raw, fried, and grilled vegetables; and seafood.
• Muhammara - A hot pepper and walnut dip.
• Mustard - Ground seeds of the mustard plant; variants are used in Asian cuisine.
• Olive oil - Pure or combined with different culinary herbs used for dipping fresh bread, a common dip in Greece.
• Pea dip - A delicious dip made from sweet tasty peas.
• Ranch dressing - It is a condiment made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, minced green onion, garlic powder, and other seasonings mixed into a sauce.
• Salsa - A fresh or bottled sauce based on tomato, with various chilis, onions, and herbs. Used most often with tortilla chips.
• Shrimp dip - Commonly used with vegetables and chips.
• Sour cream - On its own or combined with mayonnaise and/or other ingredients, a common dip for potato chips.
• Soy sauce - The fermented bean liquid often served in small saucers for dipping a variety of East Asian foods. Wasabi (Japanese horseradish) is often mixed with it.
• Spinach dip - For tortilla chips and vegetables, popular in the United States and Canada.
• Sweet and sour sauce or plum sauce or duck sauce - A semi-east-Asian chutney, used for dipping fried noodles, dumplings, and other snack foods.
• Taramosalata - A dip of carp or codfish roe.
• Tartar sauce - Commonly used with seafood, a mixture of mayonnaise, capers or pickles, and spices.
• Tentsuyu - A Japanese dipping sauce.