Latest news with #negroni
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Top Hong Kong bartender Stefano Bussi talks about his new cocktail menu at The Aubrey
Stefano Bussi was born to be behind the bar. 'My family owned a small cafe in Italy. My mother often said I made my first negroni when I was eight years old,' he says. His career started with working seasonal jobs at various hotels, with a secret aspiration to perhaps become a sommelier. 'But as soon as I touched the shaker for the first time, I felt safe, like I could express myself.' Bussi's career has taken him around the globe. He has worked in prestigious bars and hotels in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, Australia, Macau and finally Hong Kong. He was named bartender of the year for Hong Kong and Macau at the Diageo World Class 2024 cocktail competition. This year, he was recognised as one of the top 10 bartenders in Wine Luxe's 2025 Hong Kong & Macau Top Ten Bar Awards, in which he also won the Young Bartender Award.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Can a hangover pill really work? I brought one to Glastonbury for the ultimate test
Working on the health desk of a national newspaper, I get daily reminders of just how bad alcohol is for me. Multiple times a day, I read about the link between alcohol and cancer, alcohol and dementia, alcohol and diabetes. The alarming truth of it, as I understand, is that there isn't a single health benefit to drinking alcohol. And yet, it hasn't stopped me drinking it at parties – and neither have my worsening hangovers. I like feeling tipsy. People are funnier, I'm funnier and I enjoy the buzz of being in a group who are sipping drinks, relaxing into an evening out together. I also really like the bitter taste of a negroni. But I'm 33 and part of a cohort of middling millennials who lament how just a few years ago, we used to be able to sink pints and bottles of wine and feel fresh the next day. Those days, I hate to admit, are over. Our livers are getting slower at processing alcohol and we're feeling that. The hangovers last longer and they are definitely more painful. Mine usually involve an aura-type headache which forces me to spend the day being gentle with myself on the sofa, glugging litres of cold water. All of this to say: I am not a joy to be around the day after I've been drinking. The idea of dealing with this middling millennial hangover at Glastonbury – far from the quiet calm of my sofa, in a field with 200,000 people, with music reaching levels above 85 decibels – fills me with dread. So when I read about a hangover pill 'For Those Who Want To Enjoy A Social Evening And Feel Refreshed The Next Morning', I decided that I owe it to my liver to try it out. And if not my liver, I definitely owe it to my friends. I set off for Glastonbury, with five days of drinking ahead of me and enough 'Myrkl' pills to last me the festival. Will taking one a few hours before I start drinking mean I make it through Glastonbury with a clear head? Before I set off, I talk to Johan de Faire, the biochemist who developed Myrkl to understand exactly how it works. De Faire tells me that the active ingredient in this pill is fermented rice bran, a natural probiotic (containing bacteria that promotes good gut health), while the vitamin B12 and protein L-Cysteine are added as 'companion ingredients'. He started taking fermented rice bran in powder form in 1994 and has taken it every day since then, attributing his good health to it. After he and friends of his who were also taking it noticed improved hangovers, he set about trying to get a clinical trial to prove what they'd been experiencing. 'When we took the pill into a clinical study, we were finally able to confirm my initial results. Both the breathalyser and blood analysis showed that our pill breaks down alcohol in the body 70 per cent faster than the liver,' he says. But if it's breaking down the alcohol by 70 per cent an hour after drinking as the packet claims, will I even feel tipsy?Yes, says de Faire. 'Because what you enjoy when drinking is the 20 per cent that's absorbed to the blood through your mouth cavity and stomach. The remaining 80 per cent moves into the small intestine and is there for quite some time before it's absorbed into the blood. That 80 per cent doesn't bring anything to the enjoyable part of alcohol. It's basically a burden on the liver and other organs. And that's what our pill helps to break down. 'When you take Myrkl, it stimulates the gut microbiome to metabolise alcohol faster, breaking down the alcohol in your small intestine into water and carbon dioxide, before it's absorbed into the blood. That is why people report not suffering the consequences from the heavy night before.' Until now, my understanding was that alcohol is toxic for your gut microbiome and, as ethanol is the main ingredient, it can actually kill off some of the microbes in your gut, reducing the diversity of your microbiome that we're so often told to make thrive through our diet. So I'm interested to understand whether this pill, apart from anything else, will protect my gut health. Sadly, liver specialist at the University of Liverpool and chairman of the alcohol health alliance Professor Sir Ian Gilmore says there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that a probiotic will protect your gut health from alcohol and it's not very likely. 'It is highly improbable that taking a couple of tablets before going out would have any effect on the complex gut microbiome,' he says. Since he understands a lot about how the body responds to alcohol, I ask him about the claims de Faire is making on these pills. 'It is true that a tiny fraction of alcohol is absorbed from the oral cavity but this alcohol is likely to be just as damaging and causative of a hangover as the alcohol absorbed from the stomach and small intestine. Also, the studies that suggested that less alcohol was absorbed by taking the tablets, which I understand were funded by the pill manufacturers themselves, have been criticised for the small numbers, all men and the low doses of alcohol used. Also, several of the common cancers associated with alcohol consumption are in the mouth, gullet and intestine that will be exposed to alcohol, whether or not it is absorbed. 'I am sceptical of the claim that this pill reduces alcohol absorption (and the company-sponsored research on which the claim is based). A much more reliable (and cheaper) method of avoiding hangovers is to drink less. To my knowledge, there is no credible scientific evidence that this costly medication reduces the unwanted side-effects.' I so want the evidence behind this pill to stack up, so I ask a third expert what he thinks: Professor David Nutt, the author of Drink? The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health and a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. 'This pre-treatment is one of several products on the market that accelerate the metabolism of alcohol before it gets into the body. The ingredients will stimulate the gut microbiome to metabolise alcohol faster – so there will be less acetaldehyde (the toxic by-product of alcohol) in the body. You will get less of a hangover because essentially, you're consuming less alcohol. It would be so much cheaper to drink less but if the act of drinking itself to compete with your peers is important to you then it might help. But it's probably better to avoid alcohol altogether.' After getting the experts' takes, I wasn't hopeful that this anti-hangover pill would work. I wanted it to do exactly what de Faire outlined: to allow me to drink rounds of drinks with my friends over the five day festival, but save me from the dreaded hangover symptoms the next day. I could see how though, as the other experts pointed out, it might feel a bit pointless drinking and spending money on alcohol if I wasn't absorbing it. But by the third cool pint of cider I noticed that I was still getting that buzz from the alcohol, like you do when you drink your first. And that continued through the day and into the evening. I drank three ciders, a beer and three canned negronis but I felt energised and happy, without reaching the point where the alcohol was making me groggy or tired. The day after I'd usually be reaching for paracetamol, rehydration tablets, a wet flannel, salty crisps and water if I'd drunk this much, but miraculously I woke up without even a headache. It's expensive at £30 for 15 tablets, and there is a strange after taste once you've swallowed the capsules, a little bit like when you take antibiotics. But it did work for me. Possibly, because it doesn't take too many drinks for me to feel the effects of alcohol. I'm not sure how someone would respond if they drank a lot more. I was also drinking a lot of water throughout the day because of the 30C heatwave that hit this year, so that will have helped lessen the dehydration. At several points, I reflected on why it is that I carry on past the first alcoholic drink if I enjoy the feeling of having one or two. As Nutt points out, it would be cheaper to just not drink as much – and it would also protect my gut health. For me, it's about enjoying the taste and the sensation of sipping it, and it's also about being sociable. Like it or not, we live in a drinking culture and at festivals especially, where you're part of a group, the ritual of buying rounds and reaching that giggly alcohol-fuelled state together is a big part of the experience. So for me personally, this pill's a game changer and is firmly on my festival essentials list. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
02-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Can a hangover pill really work? I brought one to Glastonbury for the ultimate test
Working on the health desk of a national newspaper, I get daily reminders of just how bad alcohol is for me. Multiple times a day, I read about the link between alcohol and cancer, alcohol and dementia, alcohol and diabetes. The alarming truth of it, as I understand, is that there isn't a single health benefit to drinking alcohol. And yet, it hasn't stopped me drinking it at parties – and neither have my worsening hangovers. I like feeling tipsy. People are funnier, I'm funnier and I enjoy the buzz of being in a group who are sipping drinks, relaxing into an evening out together. I also really like the bitter taste of a negroni. But I'm 33 and part of a cohort of middling millennials who lament how just a few years ago, we used to be able to sink pints and bottles of wine and feel fresh the next day. Those days, I hate to admit, are over. Our livers are getting slower at processing alcohol and we're feeling that. The hangovers last longer and they are definitely more painful. Mine usually involve an aura-type headache which forces me to spend the day being gentle with myself on the sofa, glugging litres of cold water. All of this to say: I am not a joy to be around the day after I've been drinking. The idea of dealing with this middling millennial hangover at Glastonbury – far from the quiet calm of my sofa, in a field with 200,000 people, with music reaching levels above 85 decibels – fills me with dread. So when I read about a hangover pill 'For Those Who Want To Enjoy A Social Evening And Feel Refreshed The Next Morning', I decided that I owe it to my liver to try it out. And if not my liver, I definitely owe it to my friends. I set off for Glastonbury, with five days of drinking ahead of me and enough ' Myrkl' pills to last me the festival. Will taking one a few hours before I start drinking mean I make it through Glastonbury with a clear head? Exactly how will the pill save me from a hangover? Before I set off, I talk to Johan de Faire, the biochemist who developed Myrkl to understand exactly how it works. De Faire tells me that the active ingredient in this pill is fermented rice bran, a natural probiotic (containing bacteria that promotes good gut health), while the vitamin B12 and protein L-Cysteine are added as 'companion ingredients'. He started taking fermented rice bran in powder form in 1994 and has taken it every day since then, attributing his good health to it. After he and friends of his who were also taking it noticed improved hangovers, he set about trying to get a clinical trial to prove what they'd been experiencing. 'When we took the pill into a clinical study, we were finally able to confirm my initial results. Both the breathalyser and blood analysis showed that our pill breaks down alcohol in the body 70 per cent faster than the liver,' he says. But if it's breaking down the alcohol by 70 per cent an hour after drinking as the packet claims, will I even feel tipsy? Yes, says de Faire. 'Because what you enjoy when drinking is the 20 per cent that's absorbed to the blood through your mouth cavity and stomach. The remaining 80 per cent moves into the small intestine and is there for quite some time before it's absorbed into the blood. That 80 per cent doesn't bring anything to the enjoyable part of alcohol. It's basically a burden on the liver and other organs. And that's what our pill helps to break down. 'When you take Myrkl, it stimulates the gut microbiome to metabolise alcohol faster, breaking down the alcohol in your small intestine into water and carbon dioxide, before it's absorbed into the blood. That is why people report not suffering the consequences from the heavy night before.' Will the pill protect my gut microbiome from alcohol? Until now, my understanding was that alcohol is toxic for your gut microbiome and, as ethanol is the main ingredient, it can actually kill off some of the microbes in your gut, reducing the diversity of your microbiome that we're so often told to make thrive through our diet. So I'm interested to understand whether this pill, apart from anything else, will protect my gut health. Sadly, liver specialist at the University of Liverpool and chairman of the alcohol health alliance Professor Sir Ian Gilmore says there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that a probiotic will protect your gut health from alcohol and it's not very likely. 'It is highly improbable that taking a couple of tablets before going out would have any effect on the complex gut microbiome,' he says. Since he understands a lot about how the body responds to alcohol, I ask him about the claims de Faire is making on these pills. 'It is true that a tiny fraction of alcohol is absorbed from the oral cavity but this alcohol is likely to be just as damaging and causative of a hangover as the alcohol absorbed from the stomach and small intestine. Also, the studies that suggested that less alcohol was absorbed by taking the tablets, which I understand were funded by the pill manufacturers themselves, have been criticised for the small numbers, all men and the low doses of alcohol used. Also, several of the common cancers associated with alcohol consumption are in the mouth, gullet and intestine that will be exposed to alcohol, whether or not it is absorbed. 'I am sceptical of the claim that this pill reduces alcohol absorption (and the company-sponsored research on which the claim is based). A much more reliable (and cheaper) method of avoiding hangovers is to drink less. To my knowledge, there is no credible scientific evidence that this costly medication reduces the unwanted side-effects.' I so want the evidence behind this pill to stack up, so I ask a third expert what he thinks: Professor David Nutt, the author of Drink? The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health and a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. 'This pre-treatment is one of several products on the market that accelerate the metabolism of alcohol before it gets into the body. The ingredients will stimulate the gut microbiome to metabolise alcohol faster – so there will be less acetaldehyde (the toxic by-product of alcohol) in the body. You will get less of a hangover because essentially, you're consuming less alcohol. It would be so much cheaper to drink less but if the act of drinking itself to compete with your peers is important to you then it might help. But it's probably better to avoid alcohol altogether.' The verdict After getting the experts' takes, I wasn't hopeful that this anti-hangover pill would work. I wanted it to do exactly what de Faire outlined: to allow me to drink rounds of drinks with my friends over the five day festival, but save me from the dreaded hangover symptoms the next day. I could see how though, as the other experts pointed out, it might feel a bit pointless drinking and spending money on alcohol if I wasn't absorbing it. But by the third cool pint of cider I noticed that I was still getting that buzz from the alcohol, like you do when you drink your first. And that continued through the day and into the evening. I drank three ciders, a beer and three canned negronis but I felt energised and happy, without reaching the point where the alcohol was making me groggy or tired. The day after I'd usually be reaching for paracetamol, rehydration tablets, a wet flannel, salty crisps and water if I'd drunk this much, but miraculously I woke up without even a headache. It's expensive at £30 for 15 tablets, and there is a strange after taste once you've swallowed the capsules, a little bit like when you take antibiotics. But it did work for me. Possibly, because it doesn't take too many drinks for me to feel the effects of alcohol. I'm not sure how someone would respond if they drank a lot more. I was also drinking a lot of water throughout the day because of the 30C heatwave that hit this year, so that will have helped lessen the dehydration. At several points, I reflected on why it is that I carry on past the first alcoholic drink if I enjoy the feeling of having one or two. As Nutt points out, it would be cheaper to just not drink as much – and it would also protect my gut health. For me, it's about enjoying the taste and the sensation of sipping it, and it's also about being sociable. Like it or not, we live in a drinking culture and at festivals especially, where you're part of a group, the ritual of buying rounds and reaching that giggly alcohol-fuelled state together is a big part of the experience. So for me personally, this pill's a game changer and is firmly on my festival essentials list.
South China Morning Post
27-05-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
The Milan neighborhood where East meets West
Europe's unrivalled capital of chic, Milan is primarily a glamour destination. But there is an alternative to the classic dolce vita; a hotspot to which young, savvy Milanese flock for weekends of cross-cultural enjoyment. I jump on autobus 94 heading north from the exclusive Quadrilatero della Moda district, where Via Monte Napoleone and Via della Spiga are lined by the opulent showrooms of Gucci, Prada, Versace and Armani. Ten minutes later it arrives by the bustling Porta Garibaldi station, at one end of Via Paolo Sarpi, the heart of Milan's reborn Chinatown, a vibrant neighbourhood surrounded by bohemian cultural venues. The street is narrow and now almost completely pedestrianised, with trees and greenery making for a pleasant stroll. There's a shop selling Borsalino hats, a store full of artists' supplies and a tobacconist, but instead of the traditional trattorie serving plates of risotto alla Milanese, I pass Chinese restaurants offering everything from dim sum to Hong Kong bubble tea and spicy Chungking hotpot . Deep-fried pork, octopus and vegetable skewers are devoured by customers sitting on tiny pavement stools. Even Milan's hallowed early evening aperitif has been transformed in Chinatown, whose hip cafes offer aperitivo Cinese: a negroni accompanied by an assortment of wontons, bao buns, spring rolls and edamame beans – all for €10 (US$11) a serving. Members of Centro Culturale Cinese on Via Paolo Sarpi prepare paper signs ahead of Lunar New Year in February 2024. Members of the Chinese diaspora can be found across Italy; serving wine in a Venetian osteria, selling leather handbags on Florence's Ponte Vecchio, running clothes stalls in rural markets down south in Puglia. And while the biggest concentration may be in Tuscany's Prato, working in the textile industry, the most established Chinese community in Italy is right here, in Milan. Dating back almost a century, Milan's Chinatown is markedly different from those in other European cities due to both the Italianisation of the younger generation of Chinese and the acceptance of this immigrant community by the Milanese, who have fallen in love with Chinese cuisine. Some 4,000 Chinese live in or around Via Paolo Sarpi – 40,000 in all Milan – and this kilometre-long street is lined on both sides by their restaurants and bars, and stores selling Asian comestibles. Although the neighbourhood is particularly animated during celebrations for Lunar New Year and the Hungry Ghost Festival , there is a cosmopolitan feel here every day, the street thronged with crowds drawn by the cuisine as well as a significant number of Milanese-Chinese who switch between languages. 'I prefer to speak in Italian as I do at school and with all my friends, but my mamma insists that at home we must all speak Mandarin,' says Emily, the daughter of the recently arrived immigrants from Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, who own Bar 99, as I sip on a cappuccino. At the former Macelleria Sirtori butcher's shop, now Ravioleria Sarpi, Agie Zhou (right) poses with Walter Sirtori, the retired master butcher who still selects the meat for Zhou's Chinatown restaurant. Photo: John Brunton I find out more about this duality after entering a shaded courtyard where red doors, hanging lanterns and delicate calligraphy announce the Centro Culturale Cinese, the cultural hub of the Quartiere Cinese.
