My Aching Head

Further to the Drink Planner’s post on the drinkiest shows on television, I’ve got a few observations on Deadwood. I have only recently started watching it (pretty much all the way through.) Al Swearengen is the character throughout that you don’t know if you are supposed to like him or hate him but one thing is for certain he has got the right idea about a few things. You will only ever see him drinking 2 things, coffee and whiskey, coffee in the morning and whiskey pretty much whenever else. I’d say he wakes up with a fair hangover (though he doesn’t often show it) and a couple of times he has been seen eating or ordering bacon and eggs, clearly a man that knows how to handle a hangover.

I must confess, I’ve got a real penchant for beer and I think it’s pretty good just as it is. That and we have a definite policy here at My Aching Head of trying not to shirk your responsibilities to the booze when you are drinking it, this is to say there’s not much room for light beer or half nips. However, there is a definite need for these types of drinks for drivers and children. All that aside, the original idea of the radler was brilliant, as my Bavarian (not German) friend delighted in telling me a genius bartender realised that he was running out of beer and decided to start selling it watered down with lemonade to cyclists - as though it was what was intended all along. The Wikipedia article on Shandy covers this and more, I’m particularly impressed with the section on the turbo shandy, a staple of some of my more fund-limited friends.

So I’m telling you stuff you probably already know,and having read the Wikipedia article already you will know that radler is German for “cyclist” but as one of my good friends (also from the aforementioned southern region of Germany) taught me, “shandy” is the German word for “shame”. Quite fitting really as shame is the emotion you should be feeling when drinking a shandy.

All of this is pretty harsh really, but it’s not all bad, a shandy can be very refreshing of a heavy morning and probably won’t have the effects of pushing you over the edge back into a drunk state. Secondly, there is a Monteith’s beer in New Zealand called Radler. This is a very crisp clean beer with a twist of lemon flavour yet it isn’t watered down at all, weighing in at 5% this is a perfect beer for a summer’s day (well, not quite as perfect as a Monteith’s Summer Ale).

As far as curing a hangover there are few better remedies in the morning that Coffee and Bacon. As I’ve discussed previously, there certainly is a skill to frying up a good breakfast but that skill notwithstanding most of the time you are probably best to leave it to a trained professional. Now what I mean by a trained professional is someone you are going to pay to cook you up a feast. What I’m trying to say is that you’ve basically got 3 options of a heavy morning:

1. The hair of the dog that bit you
2. Sort yourself out something to eat
3. Pay someone to help you out with some food

Anyhow, I’m a huge fan of the 3rd option but my wallet isn’t yet that doesn’t stop me. There is a list of cafes as long as my arm that I’m planning on reviewing here on this site for starters the list is:

• Sassafras, Paddington, Brisbane
• Motogrill, Queenstown
• Bob’s Weigh, Queenstown
• The Parkhouse Cafe, Toowoomba
• Fat Boys, The Valley, Brisbane
• Joe’s Garage, Queenstown

Frying mushrooms is an easy process, which can be repeated time and time again. There is a few things to remember when you are cooking mushrooms, mushrooms are full of water and you want to keep them that way and they are quite fragile, the heat doesn’t need to be scorched earth setting, a medium heat is where it’s at and don’t let them dry out. The steps:

1. Select your mushrooms. I prefer Swiss Browns, but button mushies are also good. Definitely keep clear of bigger dark mushrooms such as Portabello, the flavours are overpowering.
2. Slice, don’t dice. There is no need to peel the mushrooms, or even take off the stalks, if it so inclines you, wash them all but leave the extras all there and slice the mushrooms, not too finely.
3. Heat your saucepan to a low-medium heat, add the mushrooms and a good dollop of butter to them. It’s really important not to burn either the butter or the mushrooms.
4. As the butter melts add seasoning. This means cracked pepper and cracked rock salt, not too much salt but the pepper you can go crazy with.
5. Reduce the butter slowly and serve.

It is a commonly held belief that greasy food is the be all and end all of hangover cures however I have don’t believe it is the grease in the food that is the cure. Now, don’t get me wrong a greasy bucket of KFC shared between hanging mates or a quick trip down to the local fish and chip store for a steak sammy certainly put the right (or correct) foot forward in getting back on the wagon but it is my belief that it is actually the nutrients and energy in what you are eating that is the solution to the night before’s problem.

All that being said, the Good, Old-Fashioned fry up is possibly the greates, possibly the 3rd greatest or perhaps just a good hangover cure. There are a couple of key factors to make it the success that it should be. First of all, there are a few ingredients that have to be there if you plan to cure even the slightest of hangover. This is by no means an upper limit, but at the very least: meat, bready stuff, and something else.

Let me explain, there is no substitute for meat. I don’t care if it’s pig, cow, sheep or sausage (I’ve not tried fish in a fry-up, but I’ll keep an open mind), but what ever it is it has to be there. I’m not saying this to rile up the vegetarians, (though I’ve been guilty of having a crack before) the high level of protein and iron these particular ingredients carry is imperative and whats more, tofu tastes like nothing and doesn’t compare to a steak no matter who you talk to. The bread, this doesn’t have to be bread, toast is fine, so is potato, pasta isn’t traditionally fried but would suffice and rice is a bit boring, but who am I to talk you can use your imagination - mashed potato from the night before also works (can anyone say bubble and squeak). The key part of this is the carbohydrates, slow burn energy is what you are going to need in 2 hours time so you don’t regress from feeling like having a shot at the title.

I just want to put this out there, I’m not a nutritionist so all of this jibber-jabber about nutrients isn’t worth a dime.

Finally, something else is important, ideally this isn’t just going to be 1 thing but a selection of goodies. My particular favourite is egg, scrambled or (preferably) fried, it doesn’t matter as long as it has a sprinkling of salt and some cracked pepper. There is a plethora of other options, mushrooms are great, tomatoes are tasty, not to mention onions and capsicum - fried together are amazing. What is important is that the extra flavours work with your 2 aforementioned staples. What’s more noone just wants a piece of bacon on toast, it has to have flavour.

Now what hasn’t been mentioned is preparation. If you can help it, you don’t want to be zipping down to the supermarket to grab supplies. Even if it is a 15 minute round trip, the chances are you are not going to be fit for public consumption let alone capable of making the important decisions. Ideally you have the ingredients in the fridge/freezer, it doesn’t matter if you can’t get 12 different ingredients on the plate the aforementioned guidelines need to be followed but if the choice is between frying 4 day old mushrooms and braving the supermarket take the option of the mushrooms.

Your head will appreciate it.