Where you are should change the answer.
4DK should understand location as kitchen context—not as a cuisine prison. Location affects availability, names, measures, substitutions, seasonality and shopping language. Cuisine interest remains a separate choice.
Location = what is realistically around you. Cuisine interest = what you want to eat. They can influence each other without becoming the same thing.
never a cage.
City-level context for likely availability, shopping language and substitution realism.
Why should location and cuisine stay separate?
Someone in Lagos may want Japanese food tonight, while someone elsewhere may want Nigerian food. Location should adapt availability and shopping advice—not decide what the user is allowed to want.
Lagos.
Used for currency, likely ingredient availability, local naming and shopping phrasing.
Nigerian
Cuisine interest is preference/context. It should not be overwritten by geography.
How should 4DK decide what is realistically obtainable?
Use evidence and confidence. City context can narrow likely availability, but Pantry, receipts and observed shopping should outrank broad geographic assumptions.
Local-first
Local-first prefers easier-to-obtain substitutes. Open mode allows wider suggestions. Pantry-only uses what is already known.
Observed ≠ assumed.
A food item seen in Pantry or a receipt is stronger evidence than a generic city-level guess.
What belongs inside a location record?
Canonical + local.
Aliases and market names resolve to one underlying ingredient entity.
How people buy.
Metric data can coexist with bunches, tins, sachets and other retail units.
Likely, not guaranteed.
Observed evidence should outrank city-level assumptions.
Function first.
Local substitutes still have to do the culinary job.
Context, not cages.
Location can enrich food context without assuming the user only eats local cuisine.
Say the right thing.
Local names and interface copy can adapt while canonical data stays stable underneath.
Same craving.
Better local answer.
“Make katsu tonight” can stay Japanese in intent while shopping and substitution advice adapts to the ingredients a user can realistically obtain.
Use location context in 4DK →
for real life.
Still your kitchen.
