If you woke up this morning feeling a little under the weather, know that you're not alone. All around the world, revelers are rising with a pounding headache, waves of nausea, and, after a night of wearing some serious beer goggles, 20/20 vision that's clear as day. Hangovers may be a universal experience, but each culture boasts its own cures. From simple solutions to seemingly bizarre behaviors, check out cure-all ideas from around the world.
Source: Flickr user mikethemountain [1]
China: Green Tea
In China, strong green tea [2] or water with lemon is a popular next-day hangover remedy.
Romania: Tripe Soup
Romanians turn to ciorba de burta, or tripe soup [3], to cure their hangovers. Cow stomach is boiled with cream, root vegetables, garlic, vinegar, and salt. The same remedy is popular in Mexico and Turkey as well.
Germany: Pickled Herring
When hungover, Germans turn to rollmops, a snack of onion and gherkin wrapped in pickled herring [4]. It's part of the German hangover breakfast known as katerfrüstück.
United States: Prairie Oyster
The counterirritant known as the prairie oyster — hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and a raw egg yolk — was once the hair-of-the-dog choice in America [5], but it's unclear whether it was truly a hangover cure or merely a distraction.
Mexico: Seafood Cocktail
The hangover cure in Mexico [6] is vuelva a la vida, a wet seafood salad of shrimp, tomatoes, lime, onions, and cilantro. It literally translates as "return to life."
Japan: Pickled Preserved Plums
The Japanese [7] swear by umeboshi, or pickled plums, for curing hangovers, along with other remedies such as green tea, persimmons, and miso soup with freshwater clams.
Poland: Pickle Juice
In Poland, it's all about swigging sour drinks [8] to get rid of hangovers. Poles drink sour pickle juice or soured milk.
Italy: Coffee
In Italy, strong, homemade coffee [9] is considered the ultimate hangover cure.
The Netherlands: Whatever You Had Last Night
In the Netherlands, the cure to a bad hangover [10] is the hair of the dog that bit the night before. Maybe it was shots of Jägermeister, maybe it was cocktails, or maybe it was just plain ol' beer.