Carry On Cascabel Taqueria – NYC

Confession #1: Last night I watched an episode of a show that I thought wild horses couldn’t drag me into. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, a reality TV show about the lives of a 6 year-old pageant girl and her family. I want to tell you that someone forced me. I want to tell you that I lost a bet, the full painful terms of which I’d rather not divulge. But no, there was nothing driving me but my own curiosity. After suffering through an entire season of The Bachelor, you’d think a girl would learn…

Confession #2: Maybe you should sip on one of Cascabel’s bottomless brunch drinks which only cost a mere $12 to dampen your shock. Start with the El Capitan, a curiously strong concoction of cava and passionfruit that glows with all the radioactive promise of a blazing BAL (blood alcohol level) that you can’t actually taste.

Back to confession #2: I liked it. Dumb and drab at first glance, Honey Boo Boo and her family manage to have an endearing quality underneath all that trash. And Cascabel Taqueria became my Honey Boo Boo in NYC. The diner-style exterior allows for a wrap-around of outside dining tables, reminiscent of the wraparound porches that are more the norm than the exception in the Honey Boo Boo hometown of McIntyre, Georgia. The shape of the restaurant and its nondescript décor somehow remind me of the inside of a metal diner, and the bottomless drinks weren’t helping.

But all mockery aside, the one thing I did see when I watched this show is that Honey Boo Boo’s family is truly a family. Their devotion to each other is clear, and when she sasses her way across the stage, they cheer together. Even her sisters know her dance routines. So as much as this family will shock and appall you, they are very much like Cascabel’s Huevos Benedict, a usually traditional brunch dish that marches to the beat of its own drum. A spin-off of a run-of-the-mill midday meal, this cornbread and chorizo variation really pulls it together…like a mobile home in a trailer park with a drizzle of chipotle hollandaise sauce. The cornbread is mealy but sweet, the chorizo is fatty but sharp, and this show is a real taste of just how fun a variation of your average American family can be.

Family aside, Honey Boo Boo herself is an adorably active 6 year-old who may or may not suffer from ADHD. But she makes me laugh. Her little belly is as round as the eggs yolks on the Chilaquiles, and she flaunts it with a comical pride that makes me melt. There is something comforting about the fried tortillas that soak up all the flavor of the shredded chicken and gooey egg yolk…even though it’s served in a metal tray. Like this fun little girl, this Cascabel…tray…“always brings her A-game” as she breaks into her feisty Elvis routine. Rock on, Honey Boo Boo, rock on.

There is something deeper that makes this reality show more real. It’s raunchy and revealing and it’s ridiculous but the underlying tone is genuine. The wholesome homey comfort of a real American family isn’t lost. They love and they laugh and though we often laugh at them, sometimes we laugh with them too. As mother June Shannon reminds us, “kids don’t come with instruction manuals”, and neither should brunch. Casacabel’s food reminds us that even when the restaurant’s a little different, we can still feel that same homey, ordinary comfort with dense, flavorful Mexican classics that warm your round little belly from the inside out.