How Different Cultures Are Fighting With The Hangover
One of the best ways to deal with the pain of the day after drinking is - drink large amounts of water. But every culture has its own perspective on curing a hangover.
How to Fight Hangover?
In the US, it seems, a winning combination against a headache and nausea is a hangover drink known as The Prairie Oyster. This morning after cocktail is a kind of Bloody Mary on steroids that is enjoyed across southern parts of the US. It contains a raw egg, tomato juice, a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and Tabasco.
A popular “Drunk Food“ in Canada is fried potatoes with cheese and other overtures.
Menudo, a soup made with beef stomach (tripe) and usually spiced with garlic, onion, chiles, cumin, and oregano has a potent taste and smell. In Mexico is widely believed to be the most efficient hangover cure available. Some also believe in the curative powers of shrimp.
Popular Russian hangover cure pickled cucumbers or pickle juice can get rid of a hangover much faster. A bowl of fatty soup such as borscht or solyanka is a guaranteed hangover cure in Russia too. In Armenia, popular hangover cure among soups is Armenian beef khash – thick and warm. It’ll take you five to six hours to prepare khash and up to three hours to cook borscht and solyanka, so you’d better do the cooking before the imbibing.
Tripe soup is the ubiquitous hangover remedy in Bulgaria with a lot of added garlic and hot chilli pepper on top. Drinking beer after a night with too much alcohol is also an option. For some reason, Bulgarians believe that this remedy actually works. Maybe the secret is that it makes you drunk again so that you don’t feel the negative side effects of last night’s over-indulgence.
The Turks also believe in a tripe soup before or after a drinking session. They make it by boiling tripe up with garlic, onion, cream and lots of salt.
Belgium has its own medicine in the domestic kitchen - beer and potatoes, twice roasted and served with saffron mayonnaise.
Irish breakfast with sausage, ham, pudding, eggs, beans, potatoes and tomatoes is ideal for people who were a bit 'cheerful' the night before. The British, well known for his alcoholic habits, finds relief in a cocktail of raw eggs with a special sauce.
Scots are known for enjoying a good drink. You can’t be hungover if you keep drinking, right?. But after a heavy night's Scotland’s "other favourite drink" is Irn-Bru widely regarded for its refreshing qualities.
Drunk Germans eat marinated herring wrapped around pickle and onion slices.
Morning-after remedy, popular in Poland and surrounding countries, consists of nothing more than plain pickle juice. Some say that sour milk (which is not pasteurized and left at room temperature for a day or two) makes miracles too.
Finns swear by the healing effect of the sauna. Many choose to sweat out their hangovers sitting naked with friends and family in a boiling wooden box. Temperatures typically range from between 70C and 100C. As the Finnish proverb goes: “If a sick person is not cured by tar, spirits or sauna then they will die.” Warning: taking a sauna after a heavy night can cause drops in blood pressure and abnormal heart.
The Italians and the Spaniards do not complicate, to cure a hangover they drink strong coffee.
To immediately cure a morning headache after a long night out, the Danish like to indulge in a “Reparationsbajer,” or a “recovery beer.”
In Peru is well know a combination of lime juice, chillies, coriander, garlic and onion - all with a tang of fish. Might not sound too appealing first thing in the morning, but it will certainly get your eyes open. This combination might give you the strength to get out of bed, but you might soon fancy heading back, as the concoction is believed to act as an aphrodisiac
Fertilized duck embryo or Balut is a traditional Philippines hangover cure.
The Namibians swear by a hangover concoction they call buffalo milk. This healing potion contains clotted cream, full cream, dark rum, spiced rum and cream liqueur but no buffalo milk.
Jokingly called a Mongolian Mary, pickled sheep eyeballs soaked in tomato juice is an ancient Mongolian hangover cure. Tomato juice help the liver expunge alcohol from the body. The logic behind the eyeballs remains unexplained. Not for people with a weak stomach.
Thankfully, this one isn’t edible. Haitian voodoo practitioners recommend punishing the bottle of alcohol that caused your hangover in the first place. All you’ll need is 13 black pins and the cork of the offending bottle.
Designed for no other purpose, Haejangguk literally translates to “soup to cure a hangover,” and Koreans have sworn by this stuff for generations. Although the recipe differs in every region, this spicy beef broth usually contains pork, spinach, cabbage, onions, and congealed ox blood.
In Japan, the traditional remedy for the morning after consists of miso soup made with freshwater clams called Shijimi. Salty, sour pickled plums called Umeboshi are another traditional remedy.
