Hangover cures

But Griffiths, judged the world's best bartender at the Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge in March, isn't content to crack a tinnie and throw bacon on the barbie. Instead, he's created a trio of deluxe dishes, including a Latin-inspired tonic. (Griffiths, a Kiwi, originally trained as a chef).

First up is an adult iceblock, made with Campari, fresh orange juice, orange Angostura bitters and Berocca tablets and rolled in home-made orange sherbet. (See recipe right).

"It's designed to really wake up your palate in the morning," he says. "Campari is an aperitif, so that should get you nice and hungry as well."

Next comes a ritzy version of a bacon-and-egg pie. It's made with quail eggs (which are richer than those of a chook), Roquefort blue cheese and spring onions and topped with Iberico jamon de Bellota, a Spanish cured ham. It's served with a watercress-and-walnut salad and a drizzle of dressing made with walnut oil, Angostura bitters, saffron, yellow Chartreuse and vinegar.

"It's got that richness but it's also got some tang, some spice to it, and a touch of sweetness," Griffiths says of his posh pie.

"I could eat Iberico jamon by the kilo when I'm hungover ... You need a bit of oil, you know — but this is good greasy, not bad, trans fat greasy."

To wash down the pie, Griffiths mixes a drink that draws on a Mexican hangover-cure theory. "Basically, they eat lots and lots of hot, spicy soup that really gets you sweating," he says.

Instead, he presents a deep-green drink garnished with cornichons and coriander. It's hot and hearty. "I've used a beautiful Kiwi beer — HopWired beer from 8 Wired, which has a hoppy, resinous quality," Griffiths says. "I blended up green habanero for heat, lashings of mezcal (tequila's naughty cousin), pickle brine, tomatillos (green tomatoes), green peppercorns, fresh coriander and fresh lime. Then I let it sit for half an hour, sieved it and bottled it. I then rimmed the glass with a salted-caramel-jalapeno dust, added about 70 millilitres of the mixture to a glass, then topped it with ice and beer."

Griffiths prepares almost all his gourmet treats ahead of recovery day. But he also has a hangover back-up. "Me and my lovely lady, we love our tapas, so any place where we can spend an afternoon eating — slowly — and having drinks to match suits us."

Campari and Berocca iceblocks

180ml fresh orange juice
90ml Campari
10 dashes of Angostura orange bitters
2 Berocca tablets

Pour into six small iceblock moulds, add iceblock sticks and freeze.

To make the sherbet, mix eight parts sugar, two parts sodium bicarbonate, one part tartaric acid, one part citric acid. This can be flavoured with ground, dehydrated orange juice and orange zest. Store-bought sherbet will work, too.

Roll the frozen iceblocks in the sherbet and serve.

THE VUE DE MONDE TREATMENT

Vue de Monde's owner, acclaimed chef Shannon Bennett — in conjunction with his bartender, Sebastian Reaburn — have created what is arguably the world's most indulgent hangover cure: a three-part cocktail that looks sensational and tastes even better. What's more, it's a scientifically sound remedy.

"We used the British Medical Journal for research," Bennett says. "One study found a significant reduction in hangover severity, headache and tiredness in people who took a herb called borage, so we used that in our granita. Ginger is good in terms of helping your liver and treating nausea and honey has a quick metabolic turnaround, so we used both in our lemonade.

"We wanted a bit of fat, so we included cream, then we added lavender, which also has a few helpful properties. And lots of green tea for the antioxidants."

Bennett and Reaburn spent an afternoon refining their recipe, balancing the quantities to achieve the perfect taste, appearance and medicinal benefit.

"This is a feel-good cocktail in every sense of the word," Bennett says. "It's quite fun to make, it looks really good — and then you just shoot it down."

Borage and green tea granita

8 chopped borage leaves
2 teaspoons of local honey
50ml fresh green tea

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl, then press, muddle and crush the borage leaves. Allow to steep while the green tea chills, then fine-strain into a freezer container and freeze overnight. Whip the ice the next day with a fork to achieve a crunchy consistency.

Ginger lemonade

½ teaspoon of fresh ginger
1 teaspoon of honey
20ml fresh lime juice
40ml sparkling mineral water

Add everything except the soda water to a cocktail shaker, muddle the ginger, add ice and shake hard. Fine-strain into the base of a small collins glass, then add soda.

Lavender cloud

20ml pouring cream
15ml lavender sugar syrup
Peel from half a lime
20ml organic milk 1 shot (30ml) of 666 Pure Tasmanian Vodka or Belvedere Vodka
½ an egg white.

Add everything to an iSi canister and charge with nitrogen. (If you don't have a canister, puree the ingredients in a vitamiser.) Chill and shake. Carefully layer on top of your ginger lemonade in the small collins glass. Drink quickly with spoonfuls of medicinal borage and green tea granita.

JUST JUICE

"If you're feeling a bit fragile, don't worry too much about proportions," says Emma Welsh, one half of Melbourne natural juice company Emma & Tom's, as she roughly pulverises pieces of fruit with a hand-held mixer — much as a hungover person might.

"The important thing is you're not overdosing on coffee or soft drinks or greasy food, which will make you feel better temporarily but are really quite bad for you."

Welsh is creating for us a version of her company's Green Power drink that can be made at home. A murky green hue, the bottled version has gained an unintended reputation in Melbourne as a hangover cure.

"We just thought we made a healthy drink but clients have been telling us they use it all the time for hangovers," she says. "We thought they just went for it because green is a healthy colour."

After researching, Welsh discovered that the drink, made of apple juice, banana puree, passionfruit pulp, plum puree, lemon juice and botanical supplements, such as spirulina and chlorella (made from marine algae), is actually perfectly suited to treat the symptoms of a hangover.

"The banana is a natural antacid, so that coats your stomach and reduces nausea," Welsh says.

"Apple is rehydrating. The green botanicals and the juices have lots of vitamin B and C in them, which you lose when you metabolise alcohol. And spirulina is also said to help boost your metabolism."

Asked to pick her poison, Welsh says good wine can sometimes tempt her to overindulge. "But if the wine's not good, I just won't drink," she says.

And sometimes, she says, it can be so good, it leaves her feeling miraculously hangover-free.

Home-made "Greenpower" juice

Juice enough green apple in a juicer to fill half the glass. (Or, if you're feeling too delicate, simply use a good-quality cloudy apple juice or orange juice).

Using a hand-held bar mixer, blend about half a banana (add more if you want it sweeter), a few pieces of plum, half a passionfruit and a handful of baby spinach. Add a splash of lemon juice, about half a teaspoon each of spirulina and chlorella powders and some chopped or powdered "dulse" (coldwater seaweed). Serve over ice in a big glass.

HANGOVERS: WHAT NOT TO DO

1. Don't take paracetamol

Bleary-eyed and fragile, you reach for the Panadol, hoping to numb your exploding skull. But while paracetamol might help your head, it could damage your alcohol-stressed liver. According to Adrian Reuben, director of liver studies at the Medical University of South Carolina, the drug can be toxic when consumed after large amounts of grog. But it's a trade-off, because while aspirin or ibuprofen might be gentler on your liver, some people find it upsets their stomach.

2. Don't try to "sleep it off"

Yes, you'll feel better after a good snooze but it won't help process the booze any faster. "A lot of people think sleep automatically gets rid of the alcohol in your system," Sally "Dr Feelgood" Cockburn, host of 3AW's Talking Health, says. "That's a complete myth: alcohol degrades at a constant rate and you could easily be over the limit the morning after a big night. This is why you see parents getting caught while dropping their kids off at school. If you're in any doubt, don't drive."

3. Don't skip breakfast

No doubt you feel seedy but a good fry-up can work wonders. "This is one of the rare occasions when I'd say, 'Have a sugary drink and some fast food,"' Cockburn says. "Alcohol leaves you dehydrated and mucks up your blood sugar level, so something with carbs and fat, such as fish and chips, can help you feel better." Other studies suggest fruit, eggs, honey and natural yoghurt each have compounds that can reduce your symptoms.

4. Don't have too much coffee

A cup or two will constrict the blood vessels in your head, which could help your headache, but a vase of black coffee will make you urinate and worsen your dehydration. A sports drink with electrolytes is a good alternative.

5. Don't guzzle red wine or whisky

Alcohol is the biggest cause of your hangover but fermentation by-products called congeners can make it worse. Dark spirits and red wine have the most congeners, so sticking to white wine, vodka and gin on your night out might help you feel better the morning after.

6. Don't drink on an empty stomach

"Alcohol is an irritant to the stomach lining," Cockburn says. Eating before drinking is therefore a must — but it's not a foolproof preventive measure. "Remember, food doesn't affect the level of alcohol in your system, nor does it prevent a hangover."

7. Don't try "hair of the dog"

"All that does is increase the alcohol in your blood and prolong the time it's in your system," Cockburn says. "You might feel better in the short term but all you're doing is delaying the inevitable — and you'll feel even worse when the hangover does finally hit you."