Theresa and I had just been to New Gold Mountain the previous week for Yelp’s Negroni Club, but when Nuffang, one of the largest blogging sites in the Asia/Pacific region, had a networking blogger cocktail night, we were happy to go along again. (‘Cocktails’is a magic word around here.) Slightly embarrassingly, it was the same bartenders… They remembered us all too well!
It was the first time I had been to a Nuffnang event (and Theresa’s second — she’d gone to Blogger Bingo). The name stands for ‘pretty good’ in Jafaikan…Jafaikan?! So I was very excited (a little nervous perhaps) about meeting some of the other blogging personalities in Melbourne. New Gold Mountain’s cozy atmosphere proved to be an ideal networking/get to know you environment for this type of event.
We knew we were in for a treat with the tables neatly lined with grape juice, lime juice, maraschino and a giant bottle of Havana Club white rum. What were we making: a Hemingway Daiquiri, aka a drink made for a gluten-free alcoholic. I was initially a bit disappointed because my image of daiquiris involve fluorescent abominations that taste like a Slurpee gone bad…but that Havana Club screamed class.
After each of us at our four-person table took a turn at pouring, and only one (Dan from Melbtown) being brave enough to shake, we were able to sample our work. Very pleasing — and surprisingly, we didn’t overdo it with the rum. Not sure how this happened though, because I snuck in a couple of extra dabbles!
Delicious knick knacks from Rice Paper Scissors were brought out during our attempt at putting together Hemingway’s favourite drink (16 in one sitting apparently!). In true blogger style no one went to eat straight away. No, no…phones and cameras came to hand, the requisite number of photos were taken — and then, only then,did we proceed to snack.
The barkeeps didn’t disappoint, and we were all soon quaffing our very own Hemingway Daiquiri. A shout out to the good folk at Mediterranean Wholesale for the best cherry I have ever had. You can’t really see it in the pic, but it adds a nice red hue to the bottom of the glass.
It was a fun night with the blogging community and I’m happy I got to meet a number of new people who were all too happy to share a tip or two about their experiences. The good news is Nuffang is hoping to turn it into a regular event. (Monthly? Weekly?)
Look forward to catching up with those I met and meeting many more!
-Ruki
Writeups featured on fellow Nuffnang Bloggers’ sites:
- String of Events
- Ruby Slipper
- Young Red Violets (with photo of Ruki)
- Trish Hunter Finds