I made some comments on this question for which I attracted a bit of stick (maybe quite rightly) for suggesting that as it was about a dish prepared in a few places in North America that it violated the 'too localised' rule.
How should we apply the too localised
rule?
One suggestion (from someone having a dig I believe) was that questions about Vietnamese food should be closed by my logic, as vietnam is a smaller area than the area that the dish in the question was prepared in.
To me this does not follow, as it is not only people in Vietnam which would know how to prepare Vietnamese food. Vienamese food is widely known and an audience all over the world would be able to answer questions on it. Just like if a question about Eccles cakes came up I would not expect that only people from the Eccles borough of Manchester to be able to answer it as Eccles cakes are much more widely known that that.
Others suggested that this was ok as this discussion had said that restaurant mimicry was ok. But the question was about not how a specific dish from a specific restaurant chain is prepared, or even how a specific dish from this country is prepared, but this dish which is prepared differently in D.C./VA (and maybe a wider area of New York, but the OP wasn't sure).
To me this seems like it is only something that a few people can answer as unless you have eaten this dish from the specific area you are not going to know what result the OP is after. its not likely that other places in other countries are going to serve 'Eastern USA style General Tso's chicken', meaning that it is not answerable unless you know the area.
Would a question like 'How can I make my chicken balti more like a Bradford chicken balti?'
be acceptable?
I ask this so I can get a better feel for the On-Topic/Off-Topic line that the community decides on in my own mind.
Whilst i am not suggesting that any of the following are happening, I also feel that I should voice my concerns in view of having open and frank debate and so that they are mentioned and can therefore be born in mind by anyone who may not have considered them to be potential issues.
Please don't hate me for bringing them up :-) (or ^_^ if you prefer)
I must confess that I had concerns about question from the point of view that is seems like a 'give me teh recipeez' question on the surface, but was by hobodave, a reputable member of the site and i did not want new users who had had their 'I want recipe for X' questions closed to perceive (rightly or wrongly) that there was a 'one rule for some and one rule for others' going on.
I would hate that it was perceived that there was 'its ok if its in America' thing going on, which is another of my concerns, as a non American.