Vote in The Skinny Food and Drink Survey 2017

Democracy's taken a kicking in the last twelve months, hasn't it? Our American chums have narrowed down their Presidential election choices – that's choices for President of the whole country of the United States of America, the one with all the guns – to a very rich woman who is possibly a massive crook, and a very rich man who is almost definitely a complete fucking headcase. We didn't do much better, voting to leave a big successful cross-border group so we can stop French people from being doctors, chuck the environment in a big bin, and generally make our own stupid mistakes. Take that Strasbourg bureaucrats, wherever you are, we haven't checked a map, haha, oh god what have we done.

Even the flippant stuff made you lose faith in the power of the ballot box – the same public that voted to name Mrs Brown's Boys the greatest sitcom of the century couldn't even successfully name a boat. Boaty McBoatface is not funny, it just isn't. What is it punning on exactly? "As you can see, it's a boat, and... boats... faces... well, my mum thinks it's funny." Here are three funnier mock names for a boat: Ship Happens, Boat-al Recall and Epic Sail. Your move, Hypothetical Reader's Mum.

Still, there is one bastion of democracy that never fails to raise a smile. No, not Eurovision, but The Skinny Food and Drink Survey. In each of the past six years we've asked you to name your favourites across a host of food and drink categories, and you don't let us down.  

Things are much the same as usual this year – we want to know your favourite pubs and your favourite local breweries (or equivalent, seeing as a hardcore of you keep mentioning cider at us and we've realised that tasty gins and rums also exist). We're also keen to know which are your favourite cafes and takeaway-type places, as well as your favourite food and drink shops – you know, posh delis, bottle shops with hundreds of different unpronounceable beers, that one place that sells the kind of flour you desperately need etc etc. 

The last twelve months have been a bit of a whirlwind in the food world – more on that elsewhere on the site – so we want to know which is your favourite new place to open its doors in 2016, and we've melded a few categories into one to create the catch-all favourite restaurant category. Turns out that instead of using euphemisms like 'world food' and 'date place', we should just say what it is we really mean. We mean restaurants, so we'll just say restaurants. Restaurants. 

The voting runs from September til November – cast your votes and look out for the hashtag #skinnyfoodsurvey if you're on the Twitter. We assume you are, otherwise that whole Boatface thing from earlier will have made very little sense. We'll tally up your votes in December – because nothing enlivens the festive season like a big ol' spreadsheet – and get back to you with the results in our January Food and Drink Special.   

So there you are, a chance to restore the reputation of voters everywhere, and find out which is the best place for a pint and a slice of pizza while you're at it. We trust you to treat this with the seriousness it deserves, and share your foodie favourites with us. And remember, even if you do all vote for Harambe the gorilla in every category, we're still not putting it in...