Yaka Mein: New Orleans' Hangover Cure With a Backstory

Yaka mein is a New Orleans beef noodle soup: stewed beef in a salty, spiced broth over spaghetti-style noodles, topped with a halved hard-boiled egg and green onions, with soy sauce and Creole seasoning doing a lot of the work. Locals call it "Old Sober," because a bowl the morning after is supposed to put you back together.

You won't find it on most tourist menus. You'll find it out of a cooler on a Sunday afternoon, a few feet behind a brass band, in a styrofoam cup with a plastic fork stuck in it. That's the best way to eat it.

What Is Yaka Mein?

The Wikipedia entry describes it as stewed beef, usually brisket, in beef broth, served over noodles with egg and green onion, often with Cajun or Creole seasoning and chili powder in the broth. Every cook has a version. Some use pork chop, some use chicken, some add shrimp. Spelling also varies: yaka mein, yakamein, ya-ka-mein. Nobody's going to fight you over the spelling. The broth is a different story.

It tastes like a cross between a Chinese takeout noodle soup and a pot of something your aunt has been seasoning since breakfast. Salty, a little sour if you hit it with hot sauce, rich enough that you don't need anything else.

Why They Call It Old Sober

New Orleans has a professional relationship with the hangover. We've written about it at some length. Yaka mein's reputation as a cure comes from what's in the cup: salt, broth, protein, and a little heat. Whether it works is between you and your liver. The nickname has stuck around for decades either way.

Where Did Yaka Mein Come From?

Nobody has a clean answer, and anyone who tells you they do is guessing.

The theories that come up most:

• New Orleans' Chinatown. The late Leah Chase believed the dish started in the city's old Chinatown, settled by Chinese immigrants who came in the 1800s. That neighborhood is gone now, which makes the trail hard to follow.
• A Cantonese phrase. Some trace the name to a Cantonese phrase meaning roughly "one order of noodles."
• Family memory. In the documentary Far East Deep South, Ms. Linda Green said her grandmother learned the dish from Chinese workers she labored alongside.
• Paper records. Wikipedia notes "Ya-Ca-Mein" on a New Orleans menu in 1945 and a mention in a 1935 film.

Later versions around town also picked up influence from the city's Vietnamese community. However it got here, the dish that survived is unmistakably a Black New Orleans neighborhood food, handed down in kitchens and sold at corner bars and on parade routes.

Ms. Linda Green, the Yakamein Lady

If you've had yaka mein at a second line or at Jazz Fest, there's a good chance it came from Ms. Linda Green or somebody she taught.

The Southern Foodways Alliance interviewed her in 2013 for its oral history project. She cooked for Orleans Parish public schools for 25 years, until Katrina and the federal levee failures in 2005. After the storm, the School Board never called her back. Her connections in the second line community led her to cook for musicians who needed help, then to a Jazz Fest booth, and back to the Sunday parades as a leading yaka mein vendor. She also served as president of the Lady and Men Rollers social aid and pleasure club.

In a Gambit interview, she talked about her great-grandmother making the dish while neighbors gathered on the porch with bowls, and her mother selling it at a corner bar. Her version uses beef instead of pork chop or chicken and keeps the soy sauce. She also won an episode of Food Network's Chopped in June 2012.

That is a family recipe that went from a porch to national television, and it never left the parade route.

Yaka Mein and the Second Line

A second line is a parade thrown by a social aid and pleasure club, with a brass band and a crowd that follows behind. If you've never been, start with our guide to what a second line is.

The food vendors are part of the procession in their own way. Coolers on shopping carts, folding tables on a neutral ground, somebody selling cold water and cans of beer for a couple dollars. Yaka mein fits that world perfectly. It travels well in a cup, it's cheap, and it's exactly what you want after four hours of walking behind a tuba in September heat.

A few manners, since you're a guest:

1. Bring small bills. Nobody wants to break a twenty for a cup of soup.
2. Don't block the vendor's table to film the band.
3. Say thank you, and mean it. These folks are working.
4. If the line is long, that's the sign it's good. Wait.

Our Second Line 'Til You Drop design is for anybody who's done the full route and needed a bowl afterward. And if you want a small thing to pin on your hat, the Yakamein Pin is about as local a reference as we make. For the full history of the clubs who put these parades on, we carry Dancing in the Streets: Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs of New Orleans.

How Locals Eat It

Out of a cup, standing up. Hot sauce if it's offered, a fork for the noodles and a tilt for the broth. Some people want extra egg. Some people want it so spicy they sweat through their shirt, which in August happens anyway.

If you try to make it at home, you'll see quickly that it's a slow-cooked beef dish dressed up as fast food. Brisket wants time. The broth wants seasoning in stages. The noodles go in the cup first, and everything else goes on top.

Yaka Mein: FAQ

What is yaka mein made of?

Yaka mein is usually stewed beef in a seasoned beef broth over spaghetti-style noodles, topped with a halved hard-boiled egg and green onions. Soy sauce and Creole seasoning are common. Some cooks use pork, chicken, or shrimp instead.

Why is yaka mein called Old Sober?

Locals call it Old Sober because of its reputation as a hangover cure. The salty broth and protein are what people reach for the morning after.

Where can I get yaka mein in New Orleans?

Your best bet is a Sunday second line during parade season, where vendors sell it from coolers along the route. It has also been a Jazz Fest staple for years.