Combatting Your Hangover: Global Culinary Solutions

Wow! Was that a fabulous party! Whatsisname was there — you hadn’t seen him for years. And Thingamyjig was looking better than ever.

Paying the price

Great night. But now it is say hello to a head-swelling morning. As an American humorist once observed, “There is no cure for a hangover, save death.”

The increased blood flow to the skin which first gave you that lovely party glow last night, this morning has brought on a mild case of hypothermia and you’re shivering with cold.

The ethanol in alcohol has dried you out, so your brain has shrunk away from its casing and is now thudding relentlessly between your ears.

Enzymes made by cells in the liver worked to convert that ethanol to mildly toxic acetaldehyde, then other enzymes changed that to acetic acid. Basically, you are thoroughly dehydrated. Not enough glucose is getting to your brain, and your blood sugar is low.

What to do?

What can you do to ease the pain, short of burying your head back under the sheets? Drink plenty of water. Raise your blood sugar level with something digestible to eat.

Some people — the entire Scottish population and most journalists — swear by a fried breakfast, believing fat fights nausea. There is no science to back that, but if it works for you…

Resorting to pharmaceuticals

What about pharmaceutical remedies? A writer for a British newspaper was dispatched by his savage editor to get himself repeatedly drunk over a pre-Christmas week then test over-the-counter hangover cures. That this was a cruel assignment was confirmed by his throbbing discovery that not one of them worked.

Trials of conventional and natural cures by the British Medical Journal concluded only abstinence or moderate drinking were effective, but for you it is now too late for that.

Otherwise, the scientific magazine judged paracetamol (acetaminophen) should be avoided because it has the potential to cause liver damage.

Non-steroidal medicines like ibuprofen and diclofenac taken before bed with plenty of water were less provocative. But any pharmaceutical solution mixed with alcohol swallowed shortly after the end of drinking has the potential to cause liver damage.

For nausea the morning after, a humble over-the-counter motion-sickness or allergy medicine could work without danger.

The real remedy: A global symphony

Your safest cure is the chili — the hotter the better. Hangover sufferers the world over put their trust in them.

Korean “Haejangguk,” a chili-charged beef soup thickened with oxblood, even translates as Hangover Soup. The Senegalese swear by “Yassa,” a chili, sweat-provoking chicken stew — although all sweat should be replaced by drinking plenty of water.

Filipino “Sinigang” is a pork-and-veg dish zinging with chili, fish sauce and tamarind. “Menudo” is Mexico’s hangover answer, a tomato-flavored tripe stew so filled with guajillo chilies your spoon will shrivel.

“Leche de Tigre” is a Peruvian fish dish made from the chili and lime-juice-flavored marinade left over from ceviche.

“Shakshouka,” North Africa’s eggs poached in a Harissa-heavy tomato sauce, is a solution that allows you to avoid confessing your suffering to your friends since it features on most brunch menus.

You cannot beat “Pho”

A cheat version of Vietnamese “Phô,” the beef, bean sprouts, rice noodles, herbs and chopped chillis soup, might do the trick.

In this recipe, it has been made from chicken stock, because if you are depending on it, you are probably in no fit state to construct the long slow-cooked, multiple-flavored, beef bone stock.

This recipe serves 1 hung-over individual with several bowlfuls until feeling able to face the new year — which looks like it could be a major challenge.

Ingredients

500ml/1 pint chicken stock

juice of ½ a lime

1 star anise

1 tablespoon Nam Pla fish sauce (optional)

1 small bunch fresh coriander/cilantro

½ small bunch fresh mint

250g/½ lb bean sprouts

250g/½ lb fine rice noodles

1 teaspoon sugar (preferably dark brown)

As much as you can take of 1 fresh red chilli pepper, finely chopped

Sriracha sauce (optional)

Hoisin sauce (optional)

Method

Put the rice noodles in almost boiling water and leave to soften, about 4 minutes, then drain and set aside.

Bring the chicken stock slowly to a boil over low heat with the star anise and red chili pepper, then take off the heat and add the noodles, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar.

Remove the star anise if it has infused the stock enough to your taste. With a pair of tongs, put a good helping of noodles into a warmed soup bowl, pour over the chicken stock, then add the bean sprouts, breaking them up in your hands.

Strip the leaves off the coriander/cilantro and the mint and add to the soup with the chopped chillies. Spoon in the soup and slurp up the noodles with chopsticks.

Pro tip

I learned at Pho 75 on Washington D.C.’s Wilson Boulevard, known locally as the Ho Chi Minh Trail for its numerous Vietnamese eateries, to dab my chopsticks into a side-serve of extra heat from a bottle of Sriracha sauce squeezed into a saucer of Hoisin sauce in a proportion 1 to 2.

Slurp noisily as often as you must — until you feel back on your feet and your brain is nestling comfortably once more.