The Quick Cure For Mardi Gras Morning Madness
I awoke with what felt like a big pair of pliers squeezing my head and my brain ready to pop out the top of my skull.
The problem was obvious: I was dehydrated.
So I stumbled down the hallway and into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door and took several swigs from a water bottle. I felt better, but not completely relieved.
It was the morning after Fat Tuesday and while I hardly felt like a sledgehammer was pounding my head and no cobwebs had developed during the night, I did have a slight hangover.
The water helped, but the real cure was bananas. If you ever want a quick and easy hangover cure, eat a banana. I did, and within a couple of minutes I felt my head start to expand and the brain began to return to its normal position. And like a point guard on a fast break, I gave the bananas an assist with a handful of low-fast Triscuits.
Half an hour later, I could have put on running shoes and done five miles.
It wasn’t a particular wild Fat Tuesday. In fact, it was pretty uneventful. I was at Cafe Boogaloo in Hermosa Beach, CA, and while the band Sand Section was fantastic, the whole atmosphere of the place had no Fat Tuesday feel to it. It could have been any night of the week. And that’s a shame because it WAS Fat Tuesday!
There was a time when Cafe Boogaloo was a true New Orleans restaurant and bar and Fat Tuesday was one of the most fun bars in town for the entire year. They had Zyedco bands and girls popped up on the bar and danced for beads. They earned those beads, too! They would go through 500 Hurricanes a night. You had to show up by 5 p.m., to even get in the place.
This year, it was fine and fun, but just because I was having beers with good friends and I like Sand Section. As I was leaving, a party bus rolled up and out popped about 40 people, but by that time I was pretty buzzed and called it a night. By the way, I was VERY disappointed in the Fat Tuesday turnout in Hermosa Beach. Boogaloo was the only bar that had any measure of people in it; even the always-jumping Sharkeez was empty. What gives people!?
The reason I had the slight hangover in the morning was not a result of all the beers I drank, by the way, but because I didn’t eat while at the bar. Furthermore, I resisted the South Bay late-night drinking move of getting a burrito from El Tarasco on the way home, but did make a sandwich. That didn’t do a darned thing because once you’ve got a good buzz, eating won’t dampen it. You have to eat as you go, not afterward.
Still, tho, we try don’t we, which explains all those boxes of Kristal burgers scattered about your hotel room whenever one is in New Orleans.
Ahh, New Orleans. Now that’s city where you had better have a bunch of bananas in the morning!
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