In preparation for traveling to Borneo, I wanted to get a taste of Bornean food. This, of course, is not an easy thing to do, but when you live in LA pretty much all food is a possibility. Thus, I found myself with my Bornean traveling companions at Borneo Kalimantan in Alhambra. This place is more focused on the Indonesian side of Borneo, and although we were heading to the Malaysian side it still seemed as close as we were going to get. Plus, it also had Singaporean and Malaysian, so we weren’t completely off.

We kicked things off with some Roti with Curry Sauce. Roti, in this case, was like a flakey pancake-esque bread and the curry sauce was mighty good. It was a solid preview of what was to come.

And what was to come was a plethora of goodness. I probably ordered the least interesting of all dishes, which was the Nasi Campur Kalimantan. It came with a pile of BBQ pork, fried chicken, sliced sausage, a flavored egg and cucumbers piled on some rice. I wasn’t happy about the cucumbers, but I knew I could pass them off to my wife. And fortunately, this was the case. But where I kind of expected some sort of banana leaf-wrapped delight, I was instead presented with some food on a plate. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, it just wasn’t what I expected.

But, my wife went ahead and ordered that delight up above. It was the Kie Kecil Hokkian, which is chicken, mushroom, BBQ pork, flavored egg and some veggies. It is also filled with delicious thin noodles with some soup on the side for either dipping or dumping pleasure. But while that was tasty, it didn’t compare to the Laksa Ayam Borneo, which is a curry chicken soup and was pretty much amazing. If I went back, I’d go straight to that curry soup.

And I would go back if I still lived in LA, because Borneo Kalimantan is not just a place for delicious food, but it’s food that is so unique that there are very few places in this hemisphere to eat something similar. In that sense, when you get a hankering for Bornean food, nothing less will do.

It’s really hard to get enough of hot pot, especially when you live in a place with a ton of hot pot options. Element is a shiny and semi-new spot in Alhambra that offers all-you-can-eat and the divided hot pot that almost always seems necessary when I am eating with people who can’t handle heat.

Element offers all the usual options and while I spent time with taro, lotus root and other acceptable non-meat foods, I naturally found myself enjoying most of the meal with the beef and lamb. Of course, these meats would have been great on their own (after being cooked in the spicy broth), but Element offered some delicious sauce options that are crucial to any successful hot potting.

As hot pots go, Element tasted like a cut above most in terms of quality. The meat was tender after being cooked and again, I can’t emphasize how nice it is when you can make a tasty sauce. For a higher quality hot pot experience, Element has what it takes.

Once upon a time I was featured on a show called Eat Street to talk about a food truck in LA called Grill ‘Em All. Eventually, like many successful food trucks, Grill ‘Em All opened a real restaurant. For some reason they chose Alhambra, which is better known for its Chinese food than its burgers, but diversity is always a good thing and the restaurant has stood strong for a couple years now. I finally got the chance to try it recently to see how it turned out.

The loud metal music has not changed. So if you’re into that, you’ll like this spot immediately. If not you might want to eat outside, because the burgers are definitely still worthwhile. I ordered myself a Jump in the Fryer, which uses waffles for buns and is stuffed with fried chicken, bacon, a beef patty, cheddar cheese, maple syrup and sriracha. It’s basically an unvegan dream and when it was ready it tasted like one too.

Obviously when you order a burger as excessive as this, you’re not looking for refined taste, but I can tell you that this thing is worth trying once. Each component is solid and occupies enough time on the taste palette to leave a mark. The only hard part is getting over the fact that the beef is not center stage on this burger. In fact, neither is the chicken or bacon. The waffles seem to take over each bite a little too much, overstepping their bounds as far as buns go.

While I wouldn’t order the Jump in the Fryer again, that is not at all a reflection on Grill ‘Em All. It’s just that a burger like that has a hard time being more than a one time thing. And according to my eating companions, the other burgers have not lost the touch that made Grill ‘Em All champions of the first season of the Great Food Truck Race.