If you are hung-over, how can you feel good enough to start drinking again?

On the whole, I am not a big fan of breakfast, although there is one situation in which I find it pretty indispensable - when I am hung-over. On such occasions, nothing beats a cooked breakfast: the more grease, the better to cut through the poison in your system. With most hangovers, a traditional English breakfast is more than equal to the task of restoring you, if not to a state of normality, then at least a state in which coping with normality is not out of the question. But there are some hangovers that call for a little bit extra. These are the occasions on which only les oeufs benedicte will do.

It was my friend Plum who first introduced me to this dish, which is unusual in being simultaneously luxurious and medicinal. Getting drunk with Plum (something which, over the years, has happened rather a lot) is, in one sense, a predictable experience, because it inevitably leads to the preparation of des oeufs benedicte the following morning. No matter how excessive the indulgences of the previous night, and no matter how strongly the circumstances of the morning militate against it, Plum always somehow manages to rouse himself from his stupor and summon up the wherewithal to prepare the dish that he is in the habit of referring to, not without justification, as the "universal panacea". In the throes of a heavy drinking session, the knowledge that this ritual will take place the next day is remarkably sustaining.

The essential point about les oeufs benedicte as a hangover cure is that you have to make them for yourself. There is absolutely no point in going to a restaurant, where all the hard work will be done for you. Les oeufs benedicte are by no means easy to prepare. First, you must obtain the right ingredients - eggs, bacon, butter, muffins, possibly spinach; these may not be readily available. Then you have to cook them, which also presents several challenges: the Hollandaise sauce may split; the poached eggs may unravel; you may not get the timing of the various elements right. Yet all this difficulty is precisely the point. At the best of times, cooking les oeufs benedicte is a challenge; when hung-over, it is a triumph of will over adversity. In this way, the preparation of les oeufs benedicte aids the process of recovering from a hangover, which above all else requires a huge amount of will-power.

The other point about les oeufs benedicte is that they stand for normality. Getting drunk is an uncivilised activity; its tendency is towards chaos. To consume les oeufs benedicte is to feel order being restored. By the time you have finished the buttery mass on your plate, you will feel purged of last night's excesses, and ready to rejoin the civilisation you temporarily vacated. You may feel good enough, in fact, to start drinking again.

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