Smilla Qaavigaaq Jaspersen, “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” by Peter Hoeg

Frozen Siberian

There is nothing more terrifying to a fine bartender than the whir of a blender battering away at ice cubes. Yet there is nothing more calming to Smilla than being around water that has fallen to the freezing point—and drinking. Smilla wants something comforting and familiar while shuttling between Greenland and Denmark, an outsider caught in the purgatory between two cultures. In this cocktail I have Kahlua and a layer of half-whipped cream on top; the recipe for comfort is complete.

And now for the familiar. It is my theory that vodka runs through the veins of the natives of frozen lands (see under: Boris Yeltsin). So I introduce the mother’s milk of the frozen tundra and cut the sweetness of the Kahlua. The ice cannot be simply cubes: no, we need to destroy the ice in a blender with the vodka and Kahlua, remake it into something new. For Smilla, taking the ice in, feeling it in her mouth, and learning all she can from it as it dissolves is a common pastime, and one that will prove useful in her search for an artifact that some people consider worthy of murder.

Douglas Kerchek, “The Smoker,” from “Kissing in Manhattan,” David Schickler

Spanish Flip

When you marry into a family that seems to have it all together, their rituals in place, and the roles they play worn as comfortably as an old coat, it’s hard to find your place. For poor Douglas to wed into the Bonner clan, he’ll need to get used to about as much freedom as an iron maiden affords. But he knows that they’re a brandy family, that they enjoy the special mixing of spirits and citrus that is a cocktail (specifically, a well-made Sidecar), and that their penthouse, in the Preëmption apartment building on the Upper West Side, needs a little of the street let in.

Start with Spanish brandy instead of the French stuff, then add some lemon and simple syrup so you have a solid foundation. But replace the Cointreau with a bit of the Caribbean’s allspice-flavored pimento dram, dark rhum, and a few dashes of Trinidadian Angostura bitters, plus the white of one egg. Why add protein to a cocktail? For the frothy head and the amazing mouth feel it provides.

I think that Douglas wants to put his own stamp on this brandy family, to enjoy a cocktail that reflects Manhattan more accurately, and to impress them with the vigor he applies to shaking his take on a classic flip.