Hangover???

Aside from the things we learned while traveling in Greece, we had fun uncovering some “little known secrets” (to us, at least). One cookbook had wonderful historical (and hysterical) information of ancient Greece with many of its recipes. Who knew that eating cabbage before a night of wild drinking (even in the 6th century B.C.) would prevent the inevitable hangover? Course they drank some pretty powerful undiluted wine then, in contrast to the table wines we enjoy with a nice dinner today. I decided to look into it a little and found even in our “ancient history”,  way back in the 1950s, 1960s & 1970s, what was considered low-end fortified wines were inexpensive and had a high alcohol content, like Ripple, Thunderbird, and Night Train Express. These were popular among young drinkers, especially the underage and college students. There were even songs written about some of them, like Night Train Express abbreviated  to “Night Train” in a song by Guns N Roses. It was also mentioned in the movie, The Blues Brothers.  There were songs and jingles written about them while, at the same time, many civic leaders condemned them as wine that led to “vagrancy and public drunkenness”. Hmm…quite the history. Some things never change. (Do they?)

For those of you who never thought of cabbage as anything but an ingredient in coleslaw, I give you this easy and delicious way to prepare it:

Cut one head of cabbage in sections, cover with salted water in a large pot. Bring it to a boil and cook for 30 minutes or until tender. Drain well, place in large bowl and toss while warm with extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice, salt & pepper. This is good anytime, even when you don’t have a wild night of drinking planned, but keep it in mind if you do!

See you next time…

All photos by Dan Songster

Tagged as: cabbage, food secrets, hangover, hangover remedy, wine