【 たれびん・tarebin 】sauce bottle
In Japan, with the 弁当 (べんとう) bento culture, soy sauce bottles are a necessity — soy sauce bottles for sushi, sauce bottles for the エビフライ (ebifurai) fried shrimp or トンカツ (tonkatsu) pork cutlet, and even sauce bottles for 黒蜜 (くろみつ）brown sugar syrup included in Japanese sweets.
Up until half a century ago, sauce bottles were either glass or ceramic, but a company in Osaka invented a polyethylene version, which has since become the standard bottle called たれびん.
The fish-shaped bottle usually contains soy sauce, but there are many different sizes and designs. There is even a pig-shaped one for 焼き豚 (やきぶた yakibuta) to hold the garlic soy sauce.
たれびん is also written タレ瓶 or たれ瓶.
タレ (たれ tare) = sauce
瓶 (びん bin) = bottle
