Hangover Food for a Faster Recovery

12/04/2023

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Hangover Food for a Faster Recovery

Soothe Your Stomach with a Broth that Hits the Right Spot

Spicy soup and jjamppong tailored to the hangover

Koreans always look for a hangover cure after drink alcohol. The perfect cure for your aching head and painful guts is a warm broth. If you had a wonderful night with liquor in Korea, why don’t you have some hangover food to recover your body and spirit? Without trying hangover food, you can never truly claim that you have enjoyed the full drinking experience in Korea.

Diverse Hangover Food

Koreans love drinking, and they equally love their hangover cures. Let’s categorize popular hangover foods by the type of broth. There are, essentially, two different types of broth for hangovers. One is red and spicy, and the other is clear and savory. It is impossible to say which one is better, so pick your favorite from the two different styles of broth.

BEST 3 Spicy Red Broth

① Spicy Beef Soup, the King of Spicy Soup

A spicy and refreshing bite of yukgaejang

Spicy Beef Soup with Shredded Beef and Spicy Broth

Spicy Beef Soup, or Yukgaejang, is a combination of the words “yuk,” which means meat, and “gaejang,” a spicy broth dish made with diverse ingredients. As the name suggests, Spicy Beef Soup is a soup made with beef, bracken, mung bean sprouts, and leek. Seasoned with chili powder, mix of salt, sugar, soy sauce is added to give flavors. Sometimes, chicken is used instead of beef, which is called “Spicy Chicken Soup.” The spicy and hearty flavors of beef and diverse vegetables offer rich tastes, making it a great hangover cure and something to be paired with liquor. The deep and rich flavors gives the “siwonhan” sensation, a unique feel that you can get from having a very good Korean hangover cure. Perhaps that’s why it’s loved by many Koreans.

Spicy Beef Soup used to be a menu item for the king during the Joseon dynasty, but now it has become a public favorite that everyone enjoys at home. The red color of the broth is meant to dispel bad spirits, so it is a menu item provided at the funeral house in Korea for visitors. As such, Spicy Beef Soup is a very friendly menu found in daily life in Korea.

② Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup, Full of Smoky Flavors of the Flame and Red Broth

Pickled radish that goes well with seafood jjamppong

Jjamppong noodles lifted with chopsticks

Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup with Diverse Ingredients

Like Black Bean Sauce Noodles, Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup is a localized Chinese food, a spicy broth noodle soup with stir-fried vegetables, seafood, and meat. Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup seems to have appeared around 1945, and it was originally a noodle soup with white broth and thin chili peppers on top of it. As spicy food became more popular in the 1970s, Korean Chinese restaurants began making spicy versions of this noodle soup with chili powder and oil, which developed into its current form. Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup can be further categorized into different types, for instance, Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup with Oysters, Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup with Squid, Premium Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup (with prawns, sea cucumber, squid, etc.) and more.

Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup is made by quickly stir-frying ingredients in high heat to add the barbeque-y flavor of flames (adding a scorched flavor by making the flame touch ingredients directly) and has the rich flavors of seafood and spicy-savory broth. It is one of the most loved hangover cures of Koreans.

③ Soft Tofu and Spicy Soup, Soft Bean Curd Jjigae

Soft tofu stew jjigae with red pepper powder

The Harmony between Red Broth and White Soft Tofu

Soft Bean Curd Jjigae is a food made by boiling soft tofu with clams, pork, spring onion, garlic, and chili powder. Some recipes include egg, mushroom, and chili oil. Soft Bean Curd Jjigae was introduced as the main menu of the restaurant run by the protagonist of 《itaewon class》, a Korean drama that premiered in 2020. As the show became popular overseas, many foreigners became interested in it. Soft Bean Curd Jjigae is a common menu found in Korean Towns in the USA and Canada, and it is one of the most popular Korean foods for international people.

Usually, Soft Bean Curd Jjigae in Korea is a red and spicy stew with chili oil. (Some regions’ Soft Bean Curd Jjigae has white broth.) Soft Bean Curd Jjigae is a popular hangover cure thanks to its spicy soup and soft tofu. If you want to taste some authentic Soft Bean Curd Jjigae, find a restaurant that makes their own soft tofu. You can enjoy the nutty, savory, yet delicate flavors of soft tofu.

BEST 3 Clear and Savory Broth

① Dried Pollack Soup with Milky and Savory Broth

Dried pollack soup boiled with beef bone broth

Dried pollack soup with a lot of dried pollack

Dried pollack soup with various ingredients including dried pollack

The Tasty Milky Broth of Dried Pollack Soup

Dried Pollack Soup is a soup made with a thick broth of pollack dried with sea breeze. The soup's broth is made by boiling the head of dried pollack, radish, spring onion, and garlic. Shredded dried pollack, radish, and minced garlic are added to the broth and topped with tofu and leek to complete a bowl of Dried Pollack Soup, an iconic Korean hangover soup. If the broth is not available, rice-washed water is sometimes used, and an egg is used to deepen the taste.

Pollack is rich in amino acid that protects the liver and helps to relieve hangover symptoms. Koreans make Dried Pollack Soup as a breakfast menu for family members who have a hangover due to excessive drinking the night before. You can use a different type of dried pollack, which has a richer flavor and has been made by repeating the drying and thawing process in winter.

② A Hearty Broth of Bean Sprouts and Rice Soup

Bean sprout and rice soup in an earthen pot bowl

A clear broth-based bean sprout and rice soup

Bean Sprout and Rice Soup with Palate-Cleansing Bean Sprout Broth and a Poached Egg

Bean Sprout and Rice Soup is a food that combines Bean Sprout Soup and steamed rice with salted shrimp for seasoning and chili, leek, and laver on top. Bean Sprout and Rice Soup is loved not just for its amazing broth, but also for Vitamin C and aspartic acid in bean sprouts that protects the liver and offer actual hangover cure effects.

The most popular type of Bean Sprout and Rice Soup is Jeonju style. It is characterized by a separate serving of a poached egg. Consider it an appetizer that you have before your meal. Pour a couple of spoonfuls of the boiling broth into the bowl of the poached egg. Shred the laver on top of it and swirl it with a spoon. It will further cook the poached egg and turn it into a thick broth. Now, hold the bowl of the poached egg and just drink it whole. Jeonju-style Bean Sprout and Rice Soup is served with finely cut squid, and the chewy and crunchy texture together will capture your palate.

③ Bland but Addictive, Pyeongyang Cold Buckwheat Noodles

Pyeongyang cold noodle with meat and radish

Pyongyang cold noodle served with side dishes

Pyeongyang Cold Buckwheat Noodles with Savory Meat and Flavors of Buckwheat

Pyeongyang Cold Buckwheat Noodles is a noodle dish made with buckwheat noodles, cold meat broth, Radish Water Kimchi broth, and various garnishes. It is a local delicacy of Pyeongyang, and in the 1940s, it began to gain popularity in Eulji-ro, Seoul. It was when dining out was a rare occasion, Pyeongyang Cold Buckwheat Noodles was a special menu to the public.

Pyeongyang Cold Buckwheat Noodles usually uses cooled-down beef or chicken broth with Radish Water Kimchi broth in a 1:1 ratio. Radish Water Kimchi broth adds refreshing and sour flavor, and the subtle meaty flavor of meat broth soothes your blazing innards after binge drinking. Some find it bland and tasteless, but once you get addicted, there is nothing better. It was also listed as among UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2022.

If you want to have the best condition in the morning after a pleasant night out for a drink or two, it’s time to look for your favorite hangover food.

* This column was written in September 2023. Please check with the restaurants before visiting as changes could have been made.

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