해장 (haejang)

What it means

1. 1.

   Eating or drinking to clear a hangover. 해장국 is the soup made for it, and 해장술 is the hair-of-the-dog version, which Koreans discuss with more enthusiasm than doctors would like.

Literally: Loosening the intestines.

Examples with translations

• 해장하러 국밥집 가자.

  Let's go get soup and sort this hangover out.

• 해장에는 콩나물국이 최고지.

  Bean sprout soup is the best hangover cure there is.

Where it comes from

From 解酲, 'to undo drunkenness'. That a language has a dedicated verb for the morning-after meal, and a whole restaurant category serving it around the clock, says something about the drinking culture it belongs to.

Other forms

Romanised as:

haejang