Wednesday, March 10, 2010

(Suspended) Poll: Where is your favourite spot for a COCKTAIL in Beijing?


A first attempt at embedding a poll. My initial impressions of this Quibblo site are not all that positive. Setting up the darn account and creating the quiz are a lot fiddlier processes than they need to be, and - at the moment - things are loading from the site incredibly slowly. But we'll see....

I originally created this list in alphabetical order, but there is supposed to be a randomizing feature in the poll-widget to make things fairer. I hope that's working as it should.

Notice that I even included a few of the more notable hotel bars, although I wouldn't normally be caught dead in such places myself.

I wonder how many people this exercise may draw out of the woodwork??


Update: Well, darn it!! I assume this gidget must be displaying for some readers, since we've had two (TWO!) votes so far. But, for me, it's absolutely bloody hopeless - and, thus, I imagine it will be for most other Internet users in Beijing/China (the only ones really eligible to vote), labouring as they are with SLOW local connections and having to use proxies.

After just 18 hours, I have grown to hate the Quibblo website: it's not very user-friendly, and stuffed full of annoying pop-ups and video ads that you can't skip or mute. No wonder it's so crawlingly bloody slow to download its quiz links. I would welcome recommendations for any more functional - faster, more reliable - poll-widgets of this type.


I figure this may be all for the good, though. There's been quite a shake-up in the 'cocktail scene' here lately, with a couple of my listed candidates being not much over a year old, and four or five of the others having arrived only within the last few months. It would probably be better to wait a few months more, until some of these newcomers have had a proper chance to establish a clientele.

Perhaps I will try this poll idea again in the summer....

For now, if you really want to play, you can try visiting the poll on the Quibblo website.

And feel free to add your own comments/reviews of the Beijing cocktail scene (or 'write-in' nominations for any worthwhile venues I may have overlooked) in the comments below.

3 comments:

The British Cowboy said...

What do you mean by a cocktail (not that I will vote obviously)?

Are you talking multiple ingredients, silly name, possible umbrella/slice of pineapple, and shaker only, or does a gin and tonic count as a cocktail? horrible Americanism, I know, but it is referred to as one here...

Froog said...

Over here, people usually observe the distinction between 'cocktails' and 'mixed drinks'. In general, things that have a single spirit and a single mixer, you'd expect to call a mixed drink. NOBODY I've ever met would call a G&T a cocktail!

But obviously there are grey areas: is a Bloody Mary a cocktail (only one main mixer, but lots of optional 'condiments')? Could a G & T or a vodka & soda become a cocktail if you start getting just a little fancy with it, adding slugs of lime juice or lime cordial, for example? And can a single spirit ever be a cocktail (I'm quite partial to a 'martini' made with gin alone!)?

Your "multiple spirits, silly name, danger of an umbrella" definition works pretty well, Cowboy. I gather you're not much of a fan.

I'm not in general, but I make certain exceptions. I had a Jack Rose the other day: Calvados with a little lemon or lime juice, and a splish of Grenadine. Very tasty.

The British Cowboy said...

Cocktails in Hawaii just seemed the only thing that would fit the mood. Cocktails in general, no.