The dish named after a place may tell you more about longing than geography.

Food that carries a place name is often made far from it, by people who left. The recipe drifts with whatever the new market sells, and what stays constant is not accuracy but the wish to sit down to something that says home. The label points at a map and describes a feeling. Authenticity turns out to be a shakier idea once you notice who is cooking and why.

When you eat something with a place in its name, ask whoever made it how their version came about. The answer is usually a story about moving rather than a recipe.