One of America’s Best Hangover Foods Was Invented in Idaho

Remember your 20s? You know, the good old days when you could party until 2 a.m. both Friday and Saturday nights and still be able to function in the morning. Those days are as much of a distant memory as some of your old hangouts like Main Street Bistro, China Blue and Fatty’s. 

It’s not that you’re allergic to fun. Your body just can’t handle the unholy amount of Chilly Bombs and AMFs you used to down. Now when you plan a night out, you also plan on using the next day to recover just in case you slip back into old habits and need to nurse a hangover. David Kahana, MD, explains to Real Simple that hangovers and all the yucky feelings that come with them do indeed get worse as we age because our bodies become less efficient at breaking down the alcohol in our favorite drinks. 

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Most drinkers have a tried and true method for bouncing back: sucking down Pedialyte, taking a cold shower, hair of the dog, soaking up the alcohol with big meal… If the last one is your preferred method, VinePair has good news for you! They recently put together a map of “The Most Famous Regional Hangover Food Across the U.S.” Idaho was lumped into the “Rocky Mountain” region with Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. 

Every other region was represented by more than one dish, but between the five Rocky Mountain states, VinePair could only come up with one famous hangover dish. It just happens to be one of the foods that Idaho’s most famous for…finger steaks! 

You’ve probably had to explain the regionally famous dish to your friends and family before. VinePair tried to do the same:

Thoroughly seasoned, soaked in a buttermilk batter, and deep-fried, finger steaks are a hallmark Idaho cuisine, typically served with an assortment of dipping sauces. Named for their roughly finger-length proportions, they are beloved across the state.

Usually, we just say “think chicken tenders but with beef instead.” Although, we all know that it’s way more fun to tell the story about how they were first served at what’s now one of Boise’s most infamous strip clubs. Yes, there was a time that “The Torch” was “Milo’s Torch Tavern,” a restaurant. Milo was Mylo Bybee, who claims to have created the delicious, juicy and sometimes tangy bits of fried beef.  

People have spent years trying to track down the original recipe and there's a chance that it actually surfaced in a Boise history group on Facebook earlier this year. It was shared by a man named Allen Haumann, who posted a photo of a recipe card that read "Sonny's Secret Finger Steak Recipe." Haumann (who has the most interesting landscaping in Southeast Boise, but that's a story for another day) explains that his dad, Sonny, was Mylo's nephew and renamed the recipe after himself. 

Is it the real recipe or not? We'll probably never know!