It’s that time of year when celebrations abound and it is very easy to find yourself with the hangover blues. Here are a few cures according to Epicurious editors and informal surveys to get the “cotton wool out of your head.” These are some of my favorites.
Chocolate Milk – A massive sugar rush temporarily eases the pain and provides an illusion of being able to function. It’s along the lines of drinking coke but a little smoother on the belly.
Coffee – It can be hard on a queasy stomach, but coffee can really cure a hangover headache. It has something to do with constricting the blood vessels-plus, it helps any painkillers you’ve taken reach your blood stream faster.
Fry Up – The full English breakfast or the “fry-up” of eggs, toast, sausages, broiled tomato, baked beans and sometimes if your lucky, blood
pudding. It is a perfect cure for a few too many pints of bitter.
Crescent City Cure – There’s a traditional, but not well known New Orleans hangover cure called ‘yaka mein’. It’s a beef and soy broth based soup nick-named Old Sober for its purported hangover healing properties and consists of noodles, meat and boiled eggs. Old Sober was generally sold in bodegas and corner stores, but since Katrina it has really became an endangered dish.
Prairie Oysters – Two raw eggs with Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce (hair of the dog optional). If it doesn’t cure your hangover it will taste so bad it will take your mind off it!
Hangover cures range from fats, sugars and carbohydrates to salty liquids and protein. Having more of what got you the hangover is heard to work too. So enjoy the season and if you find you have the hangover blues, help is right around the corner.