Cures for the common hangover
A few ways to cope on New Year's Day
Oops, you fucked up.
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Humorist Robert Benchley once quipped, “The only cure for a real hangover is death.” However, death may not be the best option during party season, in all its eggnog, holiday punch, and cranberry cocktail-ed glory. To help you through (with a little less finality than death), Decider offers some morning-after solutions that will hopefully guide you to a happier and headache-free place.
Kraut juice
Ever wonder who buys those cans of kraut juice at the store? A favorite in Eastern Europe and Russia, kraut juice is the liquid created during the making of sauerkraut. It contains enzymes and cultures that can settle your stomach and replenish electrolytes lost the night before. Pickle juice offers a nice alternative. Millions of vodka-swilling Eastern Europeans can’t be wrong. Find it by the sauerkraut and pickles.
Downloadable hypnosis
It’s true: You can download a hangover cure to your desktop. The 20-minute session from hypnosisdownloads.com claims to ease headaches and make people feel like they’re being “caressed by angels.” It includes “a mountain stream splashing refreshingly through your mind” that is, obviously, guaranteed to work.
Breakfast grease
Everyone seems to have a food they love when hungover, but there’s something about a greasy, cholesterol-bomb breakfast that soothes like none other. And few do it better than Mickies Dairy Bar, with its platter-sized pancakes and egg-and-potato (called yanks here) scramblers. For Eastside hangovers, try Willaby’s Café on Willy Street.
Sugar
In any form. Even better when paired with fat and carbs, like in a donut.
Coffee, black
Coffee can be hard to take on a queasy stomach but it can really help cure a headache. The caffeine constricts blood vessels and helps any painkillers you may have taken reach your bloodstream quicker. Yet another reason that coffee is good for you.
Soups of the world
Giant bowls of rehydrating broth, easy-on-the-stomach noodles or rice, and protein-packed eggs and meat are international cure-alls. Vietnamese pho and Japanese udon and miso are favorites, as is menudo—not to be confused with the band, which will actually make everything you are feeling much, much worse. Menudo the food is a spicy Mexican soup often made from tripe (cow stomach—perhaps easier to get down when drunk) that is said to stimulate your senses and clear your head. Don’t think about it. Just eat. It’s available at Antojitos El Toril, Tacqueria Guadalajara, and Juanita’s Tacos.
Hair of the dog (also known as “drinking more”)
The expression comes from the colloquial English phrase “hair of the dog that bit you,” and legend has it that a morning sip can keep a hangover at bay. Or perhaps it’s just a slippery slope to dependency. Who are we to judge?
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