As my intension of the whole homemade ‘slider buns/dinner rolls’ project was to make sliders, I was thinking of what kind of sliders can pleasure my taste buds. When it comes to burgers/sandwiches, I definitely go for cheese burgers or ham and cheese or those sorts of things. But something more ‘home’ was calling for me in my mind. More savory, garlicy(if that’s a word) with some sweet taste and it will do. So I went for the good old Korean BBQ/Bulgogi version. Korean BBQ and Bulgogi sauce is basically the same thing so you can call it either way. You can make it a bit more fancy by reducing the sugar and adding grated Asian apple pear, but this time I went for as simple as I could. If you are going to spare no effort and make a trip to your local Korean grocery store, do pickup those Korean pears! Of course you can use some when you make the BBQ sauce but try them as a fruit. They are not like Asian apple pears – much bigger and very crispy, extremely juicy! Also, don’t forget to pick up perilla leaves. These look similar to Japanese ‘Siso’, which is also called perilla leaves, but very different in taste and flavor. Don’t worry, at least you’re in a Korean grocery store, you will have very little chance to see ‘Siso’ there(because it’s not used in Korean food).

In this recipe, I didn’t went crazy creative about it – I just wanted it to be comforting for me and I used all the traditional Korean BBQ ingredients except for mayo and tomato(hey, I’m making sliders!). I think lightly pickled cucumber or even fresh cucumber will be great, and also the peppery taste of Arugula will work perfect for this sweet and savory Korean BBQ sliders!