Ring in the New Year and survive the next day
By Mona Mattei
Ringing in the New Year often leaves us with the echo of ringing in our ears and groggy thoughts for the first day of the year. Whether you follow George Clooney’s advice to avoid hangovers in the first place, sweat it out in a workout like Daniel Craig, or resort to the trusty “hair of the dog” like many others, clearing our heads after the big party is critical. So here’s the Sentinel’s collection of hangover cures – have a great night, be safe and don’t drive, then tune in here for your New Year’s remedy!
- Legendary drinker W.C. Fields suggested that to cure a hangover, one should just have another drink — but stronger than last night’s. But Fields’ movie The Bank Dick provides another clue for a fix. The actor reveals his solutions to hungover bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington in the film: a breaded veal cutlet with tomato sauce; a chocolate éclair for dessert; liver and bacon; or two pickled eggs and some castor oil; or Hungarian Goulash and a coconut custard pie.
- Hey, if sticking needles in stuff solves other problems, why wouldn’t it cure hangovers? At least, that’s the thinking of some voodoo practitioners who stick thirteen black-headed pins into the cork of the bottle that gave them the hangover.
- Here’s an old-fashioned American remedy: raw egg, worcester sauce, salt, pepper, and tabasco. Yum…
- Rumours have it that cowboys would cure hangovers by steeping rabbit dropping in hot water—and drinking it. If it’s true, obviously the person who invented it was drinking some mighty strong hooch!
Here are some more traditional cures from around the world:
- Drink oregano tea to sooth a hangover and settle your stomach in Ecuador;
- In Turkey you should eat the lining of a cow’s stomach in the form of tripe soup. Boil the offal and combine with generous amounts of cream and garlic, then eat before and after your night on the town;
- Menudo is the hangover cure in Mexico, another form of tripe soup, served spicy with onions, garlic, chiles, oregano and cumin;
- In Germany, eating a pickled herring wrapped around an onion or a pickle, called rollmops is said to help with the pounding head. Bavarian pretzels and white sausage also work, all washed down with a fresh German beer, of course;
- At home in Canada poutine, French-fries drowning in gravy and cheese curds can solve the body’s urge for fatty foods;
- For a hangover in Russia, skip the cures and head right into the sauna to sweat the toxins out. Follow the sauna with a good beating by birch leaves and a roll in the snow, then eat a raw egg.;
- In Puerto Rico, people pre-empt their hangovers by rubbing lemon juice under the arm that they drink with;
- In Australia the hangover cure of choice is Berocca, an over-the-counter tablet and nutritional supplement that delivers a big dose of B and C vitamins. Combine with a slice of Vegemite-covered toast and you will be ready for round two!
Or you can follow along with Dean Martin and just, “Stay drunk.”
Till next year…
Share your traditional cure with our readers in the comments below!
