If you like variety, you might be a little weary of the onslaught of all these barbecue-get-togethers. If that's the case (or even if you're totally fine with lots of invariable barbecues), you might try different marinades for the meat you slap onto the grill. America has lots of amazing barbecue sauces, but so does East Asia, where I came from. I recently made a Korean-style barbecue marinade at home, and it was soooo good I'm going to share it.

To make about a cup of Korean BBQ Marinade, you'll need the following:

• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 100 cc soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 50 cc sake
• 50cc mirin
• 2 teaspoons toban djan (Chinese chili bean paste)
• 2 tablespoons miso
• 4 dried prunes

The key to a well-rounded marinade is to sautée the onion and garlic thoroughly, until their stinging raw smell dissipates. First, purée the chopped onion and garlic cloves in a food processor, and fry them in heated sesame oil, slowly on low heat. Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients in a separate bowl, and add chopped prunes in the mix. Purée this mixture as well. When the raw smell is gone and replaced by that nice, sweet-ish aroma of cooked onions, add the mixture into the saucepan. Mix well and cook for about 15 minutes, on low heat. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

I marinated strips of beef rib meat in this sauce for a few hours, fried them in a pan, and added some more of the sauce at the end of the cooking. Using shredded daikon, shredded carrots, mizuna and boiled spinach, I made this Korean barbecue into a slightly healthier fare, but I could have accompanied the meat with grilled veggies as well. The sauce had that spicy, sweet and complex flavor of the pre-made Korean BBQ sauces that I sometimes crave, so I was very happy.

To be specific, the Korean BBQ sauce I'm talking about is the Korean BBQ sauces made and sold in Japan. Korean BBQ is called “yakiniku” in Japanese, meaning, simply, “grilled meats.” Yakiniku shows a heavy influence from the Korean-style BBQ; its origin is considered to be the grilled meats that the Korean people, who had been brought over to Japan for forced labor during the WWII, cooked for themselves after the war. (Discriminated and massively underpaid, they used cheap or unwanted organs.) This grilling method and marinade soon spread, and developed into something uniquely Japanese over the years. The boundary is decidedly blurry; Some considers yakiniku to be Korean, others see it as a part of the Japanese everyday food. One thing for sure is that the yakiniku marinade in Japan deviates a little bit from the "real" Korean BBQ sauces used in Korea; nevertheless, it is the less authentic Japanese ones that I thirst for.

Since all the ingredients have been cooked with lots of salt and sugar, the sauce should keep in the fridge for at least a week. I know this marinade requires a lot of "exotic" condiments (like toban djan and mirin), so if you have any question about where to get them, what the hell they are, and what to substitute them with, feel free to leave a comment! (Or, you can be totally lazy and get the pre-made ones in Asian grocery stores, too. Pre-made ones are pretty tasty, and I used to use them exclusively, although I might not go back to the habit now that I've discovered the joy of making it myself.)

Now...what I want is a charcoal grill and an apartment with a porch to cook the meat marinated in this sauce. And a beer. Then my life would be sooooo peachy.