Since i got pretty non-commital answers (well, an answer) about the soba dipping sauce i poked around online some. There are a lot of different recipies out there and they all had different things added for flavor, ginger, anchovy paste, seaweed, etc) however all of them have soy sauce, and all have Mirin ("sweet rice wine," which i'm not quite show how it's different from sake,) rice vinegar, or both. So i was at least partway on the right track :)

I'm trying to decide whether i should have more soba noodles tonight or if i should use the holiday as a lame excuse (a _very_ lame excuse in my case) to go to The Hat or In-n-Out.