Any place that serves a good breakfast sandwich -- with cheese, of course. And coffee. Not so miraculous, but it works in a pinch. (Now, if it were the weekend, any place with a make your own Bloody Mary bar, followed by a nice long nap and a couple of advil. By afternoon, right as rain. Or so I've been told.)

A mimosa. Or a bloody mary. Works every time! wait ... did I type that or just think it ...

I know there's some kind of stuff that comes in small bottles in 7/11 called Hangover Cure. Have no personal knowledge of it's curative powers, though. I'm of the "eat lots of food to sop up the alcohol and take 2 aspirins before bed school" myself. Either that or get up, take an Alka Seltzer, throw up, brush teeth and go to work looking like something the cat dragged in and hating life. I'm not too proud to admit I've done both!

Easy enough, McDonalds hash browns or Egg McMuffin

Wash down two Vitamin C pills with a bowl of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and a glass of water.

This works every time, because the soup rehydrates you (the worst part of a hangover is the dehydration) and gives you sodium and potassium. The Vitamin C is an antioxident so it neutralizes the free radicals from all those cigarettes you accidentally smoked when you were drunk.

But you have to be soberish enough to a) remember to make the hangover cure and b) turn the stove off afterwards.

Cocaine

jl: #1) Pop a couple of aspirin before a night's-worth of imbibing. #2) Make sure to drink stuff that won't come out of your pores in the AM. #3) Eat plenty of raw garlic because it WILL come out of your pores. #4) Attempt to arise early in the AM in order to soak in the shower/tub with coffee in hand and the "new" Baltimore Sun for enlightenment. #5) I would opt for one of those Denny's skillet breakfasts.

Question: What in the name of all that is holy would possess you to consume a cocktail (or two), share a bottle of wine (or two), drink cognac and/or scotch AND beer all in the course of, say, five hours. Oh, that's right, you're from Wisconsin.

Atta boy!

Enjoyed the fish and chips list. I will be checking out all of these recommendations. I experienced a shocker last week. Our work party was held at Mustang Alley in Fells Point. I went kicking and screaming to a bowling alley and discovered some of the best fish and chips I've ever had.

By the way please review Koko's on Harford Rd. I've had crab cake's all over Baltimore, Faidley's, G&M, McCormick and Schmick Etc.. etc.. to this day the best crab cake in baltimore is made at Koko's. No lie.

I've heard the best way to avoid a hangover is to never let it catch up to you (well ... the BEST way is to not have the assortment of alcoholic beverages described). Not that I would know, of course.

A good friend recommends two advil and a vitamin C before bed. Works like a charm. Tacos and a generous helping of refried beans with a beer chaser for breakfast followed by a cup of strong black coffee.

Sounds very weird but Chipotle.

It's a habit I got started on in college. I don't know why but there's something really satisfying about a ginormous burrito (extra rice and cheese, mild salsa) when you're hung over.

Of course I have seen this plan of action go horribly wrong... but it works for me.

All great suggestions. Thanks Piano: I bow, I scrape. But here's the answer (because who can remember to take aspirin at three in the morning when your brain is busy trying to remember all the words to Life Is a Highway?)
McDonalds vanilla shake. Sure cure. Everytime. If it doesn't cure it, you've got a disease, not a hangover.

Ramen noodles and gatorade.

Dale Castro -- I';m not sure if you've been in the Sandbox before, but the dreaded crab cake topic has been discussed in detail (indeed, ad nauseum), in prior D&L posts, as to which click this link. And, yes, Koco's has been included in those discussions.

Somehow this discussion reminds me of something my husband told me about when we were college students. He found one of his suite mates hugging the toilet in the men's bathroom late at night. When people came to check on him, he could only say "Yuck it up. Yuck it up."

This I know from science:

1) Never take Tylenol (acetaminophen) in any form when drinking or afterwards. Ever. It will destroy part of your liver and could cause liver failure. Really.

2) Take vitamin B6 while drinking and after with water. I have tried this and it works really well. B6 is dirt cheap and flavorless. Use a lower dose, such as 50 mg. A full B vitamin supplement with food before drinking is probably good too.

3) Drink water during and after drinking to prevent dehydration. Forget Gatorade, the HFCS makes it crap.

4) Eat something/anything while drinking. There is no sopping up of alcohol. That's not how digestion works. When your body senses that food has passed from the stomach to the intestines, it signals the liver and gall bladder to start producing the requisite chemicals to aid digestion. It also starts filtering the toxic by-products of digestion. Alcohol is tricky. At first the liver thinks it is water and so doesn't start cleaning up after it and that's where the damage starts. Add a little bit of food and you will jump start your liver before it gets overloaded with alcohol.

5) I don't know if vitamin C does any good, but you never know. With dehydration comes mineral depletion, so I always use Emergen-C, the fizzy vitamin C packets. That also forces you to drink a glass of water. Emergen-C is a mineral ascorbate, a superior non-acidic form of vitamin C that will never upset your stomach and is proven to stay in your bloodstream longer than other forms which are quickly excreted. It loosely binds ascorbates to mineral ions such as potassium, magnesium, zinc and calcium. Replenishing your body with these electrolytes is preventive and beneficial.

6) Personal observation: sleep as much as possible and don't eat anything. Your body is too busy cleaning up the party to start a new one. Take a generic benedryl; it will zonk you out, especially if there's any ethanol still in your body. It's harmless.

Trust me, I have put some effort into this research over the years.

all very wise and sage advice and not at all PC to admit but, Sparky, you've still got me snickering...

Before passing out/sleeping...fry up
some slices of spam and put on white bread with plenty o Hot Sauce, heat up a can of refries also with plenty of hot sauce...

I second everything the Owl said. He is obviously a professional (and perhaps a little neurotic...)

I will add that I always start those mornings with a very cold can of coke, poured over crushed ice, in a glass glass. the can and glass glass are a must; something bad happens to coke in plastic. anyway, this is a quick and surefire nausea cure, and paves the way for coffee and oj and then later the breakfast sandwich. I am normally against HFCS, but not on severe hangover mornings.

There is usually an afternoon crash after early stabilization, which I cure with chocolate.

It's always good to go for a run in the evening too, to clear (sweat) out the remaining toxins.

Kill Sparky, kill Sparky! What a douche nozzle. Bolivian marching powder is no hangover prevention. Take it from Grandmaster Flash. There's a price for any energy kickstart whether it's sugar or caffeine or speed or coke. You always pay the price later, plus the whole jail and death thing. Yoga is your best energy booster. And juice fasting. And just stay off the Red Bull kids. Just say NO to Red Bull. Total crap. Word, no paragraph!

Sparky, aren't you the troublemaker from Midnight Spam? See if you can find Pierre. Sam is looking for him.

BEFORE going to bed:

Hydrate. Either Coke, water, or my new fav, Smart Water (with electrolytes).

Eat. Eat alot. Pizza is good for soaking up the alcohol as is Mac and Cheese. Or my sister's fav, both.

Take two aspirin or Excedrin.

Go to sleep.

Works every time.

My first husband and his family used one of two cures - a big bowl of vanilla ice cream or a big bowl of cereal. The dairy factor seems to be the common thread.

Carey, not to be a drag, but as someone who plays a doctor on blogs, I must warn you to stop taking Excedrin when drinking because of the liver damage it causes when alcohol is in your body. See citation above.

Also, taking Excedrin before bed is insane, because it contains 65 mg of caffeine. As for the aspirin, it will eat small holes in your stomach lining.

There is no soaking up of anything going on ever. If you eat bread soaked in vodka you are going to get drunk. However, if you swallow a piece of Sham Wow the miracle cloth (made in Germany), it will sop up the liquid in your stomach. Sure, you will die but whatever.

Read your ingredients peeps:
Excedrin INGREDIENTS: Active Ingredients: Acetaminophen (250 mg), Aspirin (250 mg), Caffeine (65 mg).

Right-o BG, the caffeine in Pepsi is better than aspirin for relieving headaches, that's why it's in bullsh1t remedies like Excedrin.

Eat something before and when you're drinking for reasons stated above. Don't eat after drinking; drink water. If you're body is busy processing pizza, it can't deal with the alcohol.

That being said, I made a spicy peanut sauce for cold noodles last night at 1 AM. Hypocrit? No, everybody just likes to eat after drinking.

It might sound like a cliche, but I've found nothing works as well as fat, salt and carbs the morning after.

Like: Ham & cheese omelet, home fries (salt before tasting) and toast. Eat 3/4 of the toast w/butter, then the last 1/4 with strawberry jam. It's like dessert. If your head still hurts, order another omelet.

Plus the secret weapon: black decaf coffee. That way you can go back to bed right afterward and sleep until you feel better.

Oh, unless it's a work day. If you didn't have the foresight to take a buyout, go ahead and call in sick. Say it's a migraine. It's kinda true.

PS: If you're generally a healthy eater, like Elizabeth, add some fried green tomatoes. You know, for the lycopene.

The morning after is all about the serotonin - the happiness neurotransmitter. A good sauna or bike ride helps too. Individual cures might just be what you like. If you like it, you produce more serotonin and you feel happy. Science be damned.

The morning after: homemade lemon ade adapted from the fasting drink. Good lemon or lime juice and organic real maple syrup. Ahhhh. Nutrients and cold sweet relief and easy to digest, no fructosey goo.

Back when I was a chaplain in the Navy, I hoisted a few with the boys now and again. The best cure is to drink a big glass of warm salt water in the morning to clean out your innards, then go for a sweat and a rub down.

Bourbon Girl, when I was a younger lad and working in a drug store, you could buy small bottles of Coca Cola™ syrup specifically for curbing nausea. Don't know if it is still available.

RiE - you can get cola syrup here.

Retired, cola syrup is available at pharmacies, but it isn't Coca Cola brand.

Bourbon Girl and RiE,
When I was a kid, somehow my parents could buy gallon containers of Coca-Cola syrup. I forget the amounts, but they'd pour some into a half-gallon container, add a bunch of water, and stir. I drank a lot of it. hey would give that to me often because I would get nauseated and dehydrated a lot. I guess I didn't drink enough back then.

but I'm over that now.

Owl, great tips! All that research paid off. My guess is that it's ongoing.

Like Rob in PCB FL, I, too, remember the gallon containers of genuine Coca-Cola syrup (back in the 1960s, in my case), though I can't recall if they used glass bottles or #10 cans. At my home, it was always mixed with tap (never carbonated) water, and either served that way or frozen in those metal ice-cube trays (creating an alleged treat that was nowhere near as good as a genuine Popsicle).

Julie -- if you drink red wine, the anti-oxidants are included. Or so I keep telling myself.

But hey, it goes great with cheese.

hmpstd, my mother used to make us healthy "popsicles" out of orange juice or lemonade, speaking of alleged treats (actually they were pretty good!)

The Owl is so right about popping asprin, tylenol, etc. while drunk/drinking. Very bad idea because very bad for your liver. Don't do it, people!

At least wait until your liver is all done processing the alcohol before taking anything. It takes way longer than you think. If you've had a night of it, you are probably still drunk when you wake up, and in any event your liver will still be processing the alcohol well into the next day. especially if you are female, as women metabolize alcohol much slower than men do.

I try not to take anything at all. Thus, the Coke (NOT pepsi, OMG; they are not the same, particularly in this regard). It works. I have one can in my fridge on standby right now, waiting for the next bender.

Dahlink -- I think a Popsicle has a chemical ingredient that changes the consistency of the product in such a way that you can bite into one without breaking a few teeth. The same can't be said of the frozen Coke syrup and tap water -- the result has the same density and consistency as an ice cube with caramel food coloring added. Perhaps your frozen orange juice or lemonade was closer in consistency to a Popsicle than to an ice cube.

Cheese Girl, I think I remember hearing a long time ago that some people are specifically allergic to some chemical that's in red wine and that is why it give them headaches. The person who told me this said it was easily fixed by popping a benadryl and then drinking - but he didn't say how much...

hmpstd, hon, I remember breaking no teeth on those juicy pops, so you must be right, as usual.

Dahlink -- I would add that it was one thing to freeze the Coke syrup/tap water mixture back then, but it was another thing to get the finished product out of those infernal metal ice cube trays.

Coke syrup pops were for sucking on, not for biting into. I remember them very well and loved that they lasted longer than frozen fruit juice.

I saw Coke™ syrup (and the other Coca Cola™ products) at, I think it was a Sam's Club™. Large cardboard boxes with plastic bladders inside and a hose coming out the bottom. At least a gallon. A bit more than you'd want at home. The ones we sold forty years ago were 8-ounce bottles.

Cheese Girl really comitting to her name. Great.

BG, Pepsi vs Coke? Pepsi is better. I had a girlfriend who drank Pepsi and milk. Now that sounds like a great day-after drink.

RWH is a poorly understood topic. (Red wine headache). See below:
http://the-wine-rack.blogspot.com/2006/08/red-wine-headache-sulfites-histamines.html

Shiatsu is all you need to relieve a headache. It's also the best pick-me-up ever, but doing it on yourself can be pure torture, as the points that need pressure may hurt like mofo.

Rosebud -- expecting kids not to bite into Coke syrup pops is akin to expecting them not to bite into Tiisie Roll Pops. Resistance is futile.

Sausage Egg & Cheese from Boarman's Meat Market in Highland, MD...works like a charm!

Sorry -- my last post to Rosebud was intended to refer to biting into Tootsie Roll Pops.

Oh no. OMG, you and I are about to have our first disagreement (having previously agreed enthusiastically on the merits of rye whiskey). Coke kicks Pepsi's butt.

I know sodas are the new Satan in terms of chemical-ness and some phosphate thing and the latest studies say you'll pretty much die if you even have one sip, but I have a full on addiction to Diet Coke that sometimes frightens even me. So I consider myself an expert. Diet Coke over Diet Pepsi. And fountain over bottled.

There. I think we can all agree I've said the final word :-)

We can't disagree over Diet Coke vs Diet Pepsi since I never drink any of that poison. Chemical pisswater. I don't drink sodas anyway. I do ocasionally have a Pepsi overseas because they use real sugar not HFCS. I have an ancient memory of RC being better than both. Same with 7-Up over Sprite or others.

I don't drink soda anymore either, but my memory is that real bottled Coke, in big tall green glass bottle (circa 1966?) rocked over all other sodas. When Coke replaced the real cane sugar with corn syrup (or some reasonable facsimile thereof) the taste was irretrievably lost to all time...

In a past life when I frequented Science Fiction conventions, I drank Jolt Cola. Its slogan was "All the sugar and twice the caffeine."

The last I heard, the company that makes it succumbed to the lure of the evil HFCS.

I used to drink a combination of milk and Pepsi called a "PepsiAnnie"--they actually had a recipe for it.

My mother had a wonderful flexible rubber mold for those frozen treats. It produced popsicles in the right shape as long as we inserted the sticks first to keep the liquid from dribbling out. Getting the frozen pops out was a snap.

hmpstd!
It was in the 60s for me as well, as a little kid. It was genuine Coca-Cola syrup back then, complete with logo and all. We mixed ours with tap water as well. And on occasion, Mom would make the cola-sicles for us since we had one of those molds and the plastic or wood sticks.

If you can get Kosher Coca-Cola at Christmas time, it has sugar, not HFCS.
The bottle top ( 2 liter) is a different color, although I forget what the color is.

Coke and Pepsi.

They both have distinctive tastes (to me, Coke is a tad sweeter) I do like them both, sometimes Coke (the sweeter of them) or Pepsi.

But only in the caffeine-free diet versions of both. I don't like the HFCS and caffeine.

I've seen kosher Coke. I have to wonder how something with no animal ingredients could be kosher or not. Maybe it's just a marketing scam. What self-respecting rabbi would bless a vat of Coke?

Susan WNAJ -- I believe you're referring to the Coca-Cola that is Kosher for Passover, not Christmas. (Who'd care about kosher products around Christmas, anyway?) The bottle top can be yellow or white, but must have the OU-P symbol (the Orthodox Union's kosher certification, as to which see photo here).

OMG -- certain breads, grains, and leavened products are considered chametz, and, as such, may not be consumed by observant Jews during Passover. Corn is not chametz, strictly speaking, but Ashkenazi Jews consider products made from corn to be kitniyot, which is too close to chametz for comfort, so corn products will also be avoided by the Ashkenazi during Passover. HFCS is, of course, made from corn, so Kosher for Passover Coke uses real sugar instead of HFCS.

Some sodas are certified Kosher all year round. The Giant Diet Cream Soda I have has the "Circle-U" certirfication, and I have seen others.

OMG, the Rabbi does not "bless" the vat of Coke, he certifies that the ingredients are kosher and that it is made separate from non-kosher things (so there is no chance of mixing). For a bottling plant where everything is steam cleaned regularly this is usually no problem.

Note that I do not keep kosher but I have friends and relatives who do and I've picked up some knowledge over the years.

Kosher for Christmas. That's a little awkward.

Forbidden grains ... sounds like a bad romance novel.

So I thought I would get to the bottom of this Pepsi is sweeter, Coke is sweeter agurment that I've been hearing. With Peapod at my side, I figured that if I could compare the amount of sugar, it would settle the debate that has been simmering in my head for years.

For a 12 ounce serving, calories and sugar grams:
Coke 140, 39 g
Pepsi 150, 41g
RC 150, 42 g
Rally 165, 43.5 g

So there you have it. No idea what Rally cola is. RC still exists. How about that.

I was curious how RC survived. They are owned by Cott Beverages. Never heard of them?

Cott's own soft drink brands are household names in the parts of the world where they're sold. In North America, our brands include Cott, Stars & Stripes, Vess, Vintage, Mr. Fizz, Top Pop, City Club. In Mexico, Cott brands include Stars & Stripes, Jarritos, Del Huerto and American Stars. In the UK, Ben Shaws and Carters, D&G and Suncharm are well known by consumers. And around the globe, from Australia to Uzbekistan, RC Cola provides refreshment for a thirsty world!

There must be some kind of soda altenrative universe that I'm not aware of.

VDP -- Actually, Cott only has the international rights to RC Cola, while the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group holds the North American rights. Cott was a leading New England soft drink bottler 50 years ago. Nowadays, after a series of mergers and divestitures, its lead business is making Sam's Choice sodas for Wal-Mart -- and, since Wal-Mart recently cut shelf space for its private-label sodas, Cott's stock price has nosedived. (Speaking of private labels, Rally Cola is a house brand for Giant Food and other Royal Ahold stores.)

Welcome back and thank you for the research VDP. I hate to be critcal, but I'm not sure that this solves the question of which is sweeter.

Can you judge sweetness objectively? Suppose they are all using HFCS. That's not the same as if they were all using sucrose. HFCS is a mix of fructose and sucrose. The mixes might be different, with furctose and sucrose having different sweet qualities. Also, can you measure sweetness just by the amount of sugar or do you have to consider the other ingredients? All these drinks have added flavors and various acids that create the final taste.

I don't know if sweetness is something that can be measured. Besides, didn't we solve this issue with the Pepsi Challenge in the 80s and 90s? Pepsi always won.

Thanks for the reminder, hmpstd. I remember drinking Cott brand sodas when I was growing up in New York, yeah ... I guess it was fifty years ago.