India, Dec. 9 -- "Lolab with Big Bull, Kahwa, Kulfi? Mana with Tequila, Maggi, Jalapeno? Vindara with Vodka, Sesame, Lemon Pickle? Simbor with Gin, Betel Leaf and Coffee? Or, Coromel with Vodka, Tamarind, Butter Popcorn?" In Indore, India's cleanest city, Chef Vedant Newatia was naming cocktails off his mint-fresh Masala Code pan-Indian restaurant's menu and my food-sense was getting addled. Maggi in a cocktail? Popcorn, too? And isn't Mana the last village on Indo-Tibet border? And Lolab, a valley in Kashmir? Surely, Chef Newatia was stirring geography into the dainty coupes, flute and highball glasses.

"The menu is our love letter to India. To its valleys that smell of saffron and pine, to its coasts heavy with salt and tamarind, to it...