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Deep-Fried Canary: Top Hangover Cure?

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

A hangover is the morning-after 'reminder' of a night spent absorbing way too much good cheer. With the morning comes pain as your shrunken brain alerts you to your body's dehydration, nutrient deficiency and the beer coaster stuck to your forehead. What do you do? How do you cure your hangover? If the usual stand-by remedies - like Vegemite on toast - don't take your fancy, here are some hangover soothers sure to put your mind (and body) at ease … or not.

HISTORY'S BIZARRE HANGOVER REMEDIES

Liquid Lunch
Next time you feel the ill-effects of too much alcohol, tuck into a bowl of Haejangguk, a Korean beef broth made with pork spine, dried cabbage, coagulated ox blood and vegetables. In Mexico, those serious about busting their resaca (hangover) eat a bowl of Menudo, a traditional spicy soup made with tripe.

Lemon Twist
A zesty half a lemon rubbed under your drinking arm before 'the session' begins is a hangover-beater that Puerto Ricans swear by.

Fry-Up
In Ancient Rome, a couple of deep-fried canaries were a hit with the locals (a pre-KFC junk food-fix?), while those in the Middle Ages raved about bitter almonds and dried eel.

You do Voodoo?
Embrace the Haitian cure and plunge 13 black pins into the cork of the last bottle you drained. (Obviously this is more difficult if your bottle has a screw-top, or you're a beer drinker).

Hot Cup of Tea
We're not talking English Breakfast here, oh no. Try instead rabbit-poo tea, a curative concoction brewed by those wacky cowboys of the Wild West. Would you call this herbal? And organic?

Native Know-How
Folklore has it that the Native Americans worked up a sweat, then licked it off their skin and spat it out to rid their bodies of 'poison'. Asiatic Indians scull a nice big glass of their own wee. Mmmmm.

Mongolian Mary
A pair of pickled sheep's eyes in tomato juice is the hangover buster of choice for heavy drinkers in Outer Mongolia - something to remember if you feel like a night out while travelling through this fine (and curious) country.

Protein Punch
In ancient Greece, sheep lungs and two owl eggs were said to beat the hangover blues. Don't skimp on the owl eggs, you definitely need two.

NOT-SO-BIZARRE HANGOVER REMEDIES

Berocca and H2O
Treat this remedy as a survival kit and lay it out on your bedside table to be consumed at the end of a big night, just before falling into bed. (This trick only works if you end up back at your own bed, of course).

Banana Smoothie
If you can handle the sound of a blender - are you sure you have a hangover? For those truly suffering, downgrade the smoothie to a banana sanga and enjoy its hit of vitamin B and potassium with a drizzle of honey for a natural sugar boost.

Sports Drink
A good guzzle on one of these electrolyte- sugar- and nutrient-laced potions (Gatorade etc) puts a bit of a zing back into your step thanks to the phenomenon of re-hydration. It won't, however, make you an athlete.

Grease Hit
The 3am kebab, burger or pizza is a remedy that many hangover pros employ. At this magical hour, greasy food seems to calm a seedy belly despite the fact it should do the opposite.

Prairie Oyster
Whisk up a natty little potion of egg yolk, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, Tabasco, and salt and pepper. Get this down your gullet and you'll be so distracted by the awful taste you'll forget about the throbbing behind your eyeballs.

Hair of the Dog
This conscious downing of more alcohol is a 'postponement of the inevitable' rather than a 'cure'. You'll still feel like a mongrel, though probably in a fitter state to make a banana sandwich, buy a kebab or get the lid off a Berocca bottle.

Kelly Ford, Bar Editor, May 2008

Do you have a bizarre or not-so-bizarre hangover remedy that we haven't included here? Let us know with our 'tell us what you think' tool below.