"A modest little restaurant in Fremont, 19 Gold is a busy destination for Taiwanese food and bubble tea. The braised combination platters are a good place to start, featuring duck wings and pork intestines, but the main draw is the malatang bowls. These feature 19 different spices — hence the name of the restaurant — and you can order them with meat, seafood, vegetables, dumplings, and even udon noodles. Unsurprisingly, 19 Gold is also a perfect place to sample the national dish of Taiwan: a beef noodle soup with a rich bone marrow base and a slightly spicy kick. But, surprisingly and perhaps best of all, the minced pork over rice or noodles is seemingly simple but spectacular." - Jay Friedman