(Once in a while, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)
Where'd you go? Juicebox, a new organic café and juice bar on 12th by Northwest Film Forum.
Who's your date? Judy Blume and Lena Dunham in Conversation.
What'd you eat? I had the brown rice congee with kohlrabi, a soft-boiled egg, and assorted vegetables. ($10) I also had a ginger beet juice. ($7.50)
How was the food? It was good! The congee was basically lunch oatmeal, a big bowl of nutrition with fresh and pickled vegetables. It was spicy and flavorful, and there were plenty of disparate ingredients mixed in, to keep the flavor from being too dull or predictable. And the juice was fantastic, a spicy, frothy glass of pure energy. The only real complaint I had was the price; between the congee, the juice, and the tip, I wound up spending about twice what I normally do on a lunch. I understand that fresh, organic ingredients are necessarily more expensive than what you find at your average burrito stand, but the price is going to be prohibitive in my eating here, making it more of a treat than a staple.
What does your date say about itself? It's an 80-page interview between the beloved novelist and the Girls creator that is only available with a subscription to The Believer.
Is there a representative quote? Here's this, about how Blume started out as a writer:
JB: I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what. I was reading my little children rhyming picture books at bedtime, so at night, when I was washing the after-dinner dishes, I'd make up rhyming stories. Imitation Dr. Seuss stories. They were really bad. I have some in a box right down there.
LD: Really?
JB: Yes, and it says on the box—it's a note to my kids—it says, "When I die, if you ever publish these I will come back and haunt you." They cannot be seen.
LD: It's really hard to rhyme. It's very special and particular; some of the most talented people in the world can't do it.
Will you two end up in bed together? Absolutely. I read about half of it at lunch, and I can't wait to read the rest tonight. It's such a charming interview between two very different generations. I'm not always a fan of rambling interviews that leave every last aside in, but in this case Dunham fawning over Blume and Blume talking about her breakfast routines give the interview the ebb and flow of a real conversation. It's absolutely charming.
