How to cure a hangover

Jenny samples a few glasses of wine before finishing off with cake and ice cream. Photo by David Lansing.

I am in Madrid where I’ve been drinking wine all day. Lots and lots of wine. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that I’ve tasted the juice of at least 80 or 90 wines today (it’s hard to keep track). And now I’m sitting at the bar in the Hotel de las Letras with Jenny trying to stay awake while we wait for Eva who is taking us to dinner. The problem is I am terribly jetlagged and all I really want to do is take the elevator up to my room and pass out on my bed. Plus, as I’ve just noted, I’ve been drinking all day. And eating. And it’s now almost 10 o’clock. At night. But that’s the way the Madrileños, who are called gatos (cats) roll. They drink a lot and they eat late. Very late.

So in an effort to stay awake, I make small talk with Jenny, who is from Dallas.

“I’m going to have such a hangover tomorrow,” I tell her.

She nods. Picks up her glass of red wine (we can’t stop now). “Actually,” she says, “I know a good cure for hangovers. I was playing bongos at a club back home and the next morning I had to get up early and take my daughter to a birthday party. Well, there was a doctor at the party and he told me to eat ice cream and cake. And I’ll tell ya what—it’s the best.

“He said there was something about the milk from the ice cream and the sugar that gives you a rush, if you know what I mean, and the cake is like eating toast and absorbs the alcohol. Or something like that. Anyway, it works, I swear.”

So. I don’t know what I’m going to have for dinner tonight but I know what I’m going to have for dessert: ice cream and cake. And a big glass of wine to wash it all down.