New Orleans Has a Soup That Supposedly Cures Hangovers

Next time you're struggling to overcome a raging hangover, try mixing up this dish in the kitchen: beef brisket, spaghetti noodles, hard-boiled egg, soy sauce, green onions, hot sauce. It may sound like a godawful mess but it's got all the stuff to make you feel better – science proves it!

Really. Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist at UC Davis, released the results of her highly individualized quest to fathom the healing power of yakamein or "yak-a-mein," a Chinese-ish soup that's popular in New Orleans but unknown pretty much everywhere else. "Folklore has it that American soldiers from New Orleans stationed in Korea in the 1950s learned to appreciate yak-a-mein on the morning after, and brought a taste for it back home," she says. "It may be a good example of intuitive science – an effective remedy, and with the scientific basis revealed only years later."