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Jews Who Booze

Match a drink to a novelist

by
Marc Tracy
November 03, 2010
Bring out the vodka!(Wikipedia)
Bring out the vodka!(Wikipedia)

HTMLGIANT comes up with various cocktails to match particular novelists—Franzen’s Blurry Gin n’ Tonic involves gin, tonic, a lime twist, and the removal of your glasses; Sartre’s Absent Absinthe entails a half-empty absinthe glass, a sugar cube, and leaving the table, never to return. Here are some more concoctions:

• The Shteyngart Shandy: Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout and lemon seltzah (thanks to Bambi Shlomovich on that one).

• HTMLGIANT provides the recipe for Roth’s Gin n’ Jews (gin, orange juice, and grapefruit juice), but executive editor Jesse Oxfeld notes that his cocktail would contain liver, crushed.

• Here are Dan Klein’s “Instructions” for the Guri-tonic War: Gin, tonic and penny served in a balloon. Understand you hold a drink.

• And Dan’s Dreyfus Affair: Equal parts Champagne, Bordeux, Chartreuse, Jewish parents. Shake drink while accusing it of treachery. Let sit locked in cabinet for a decade. Unlock and serve with an olive.

• The Icy Bashevis Singer has cold slivovitz and pickled beets.

• The Eggnog Ferber is imbibed on Hanukkah, not Christmas.

• The Jonathan Saffron Foer is a Sephardic spirit, a sangria featuring Spanish wine and enticing spices.

You know what the comments are for!

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.