When it comes to regional dishes, I reckon an important factor is that the locals are knowledgeable about them and able to hold the vendors to account - I'm not sure you could get away with serving a truly bad cheesesteak in Philly for very long. But you take the locals out of the equation and the standards start to slide.
This is like my quest to find a good deep dish pizza outside Chicago. No reason somewhere else couldn’t do it right. But they never do.
By the way, what makes a great deep dish pizza?
Well now I feel like I need to go to Chicago!
When it comes to regional dishes, I reckon an important factor is that the locals are knowledgeable about them and able to hold the vendors to account - I'm not sure you could get away with serving a truly bad cheesesteak in Philly for very long. But you take the locals out of the equation and the standards start to slide.