The Secret New Orleans, Louisiana Hangover Cure

Every now and then, especially in New Orleans, Louisiana you might tend to have some drinks.

Along with those drinks comes the hangover the next morning.

We all look for things for help ease those hangovers, but there is one hangover cure that New Orleans natives swear by.

Secret New Orleans Hangover Cure

The magical New Orleans hangover cure is called yakamein.

Pronounced "Yah-ka-Main", it's got lots of goodies in it like salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cooked spaghetti, tender bits of beef, chopped green onion and a boiled egg in broth.

Sometimes you'll even find alligator meat in it. Toss in a little Sriracha-Crystal hot sauce or Tabasco, and legend says you've got a nifty concoction that can cure even the worst hangover.

Is it a soup or meal? It's actually both.

I've never had yakamein, but I remember as a kid my dad talking about the many mornings he went looking for the yakamein lady while he was growing up in New Orleans.

New Orleans, Louisiana Native Linda Green Is The Yakamein Lady

Green tells BBC.com -

“Sometimes, you know, you just out of it. But when you taste yakamein, believe it or not, you come back to life. My daughter, she might go out with her girlfriends, and she’ll come in in the morning – Maaaa, I need a yakamein. Maaaa, I need a yakamein. And I have to go get it.”

How did yakamein even start?

It's believed to have started with Chinese immigrant and African-American mixed homes in the early 1900s.

Yakamein is a little Asian, and a little African.

The best and true way to enjoy yakamein is to find a yakamein pop-up somewhere in Downtown New Orleans and get a Styrofoam to-go cup of it.

You'll find it served in different restaurants around New Orleans, but the best you'll get is out of the back of Ms. Linda's truck or, you can find her yakamein regularly at  Bywater Bakery.

Have you ever had yakamein? Did it work?