By the time a meal tastes “fine,” most of us stop short of the last 10 percent—the quick finishing touches that make food feel inevitable, like you couldn’t stop eating it if you tried.

Boston’s hidden kitchens serve global comfort and community flavor far beyond clam chowder and tourist traps downtown.

Tucked away in a Cupertino strip mall, where tech geniuses debate the future of artificial intelligence, sits Liang’s Village – an unassuming Taiwanese restaurant that’s quietly creating food so ...