Tripe as a Hangover Cure

Sometimes local cuisine can be a bit of a challenge if your taste buds lean toward the safe, comforting, bland and the North American. Tripe, the stomach lining of grazing farm animals —usually cows or pigs — is featured prominently in many national dishes throughout the world. The Peruvians have cau-cau, the Ethiopians have dulet (a lively tripe and entrails stir-fry) and the Hungarians have pacal, to name but a few.

But you may not want to immediately dismiss these local dishes, especially if you have rigorously sampled the local hooch the night before. See, most of these tripe staples, especially if they are in soup form it seems, are touted as a fool-proof hangover remedy.

In Mexico, if you’ve sampled mezcal to excess for example, you’ve got menudo. Families will share this soup the morning after a wedding reception, at births, Christmas and other events where family members tend to drink excessively. Menudo takes a long while to prepare, so it is made well in advance, ensuring one is not struggling with elaborate food prep while nursing a hangover. Nutrition experts intrigued by the heavy presence of tripe in traditional hangover cures hypothesize it may be the zinc, range of B vitamins, fatty acids and protein in the tripe that re-energizes and restores the body. An alternate theory emerged though: It is not the tripe that cures the hangover, but rather the spices added to the soup (garlic, red chili, cumin) distract the mind from the hangover.

But really, if your insides are heaving and head pounding, who cares how it works as long as the job gets done.