Contributor Review by Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac: Twinbrook's Little Secret - Seska Lounge

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Every 5 - 6 weeks, my girlfriends and I have a “Ladies Night Out” where we make it a point to discover new restaurants in the area while we chat and catch up on “life”. After frequenting many of the Town Center establishments, we were in search of “less-chain” and more “mom and pop” type venues. Our latest event lead to the discovery of Twinbrook’s Little Secret: Seska Lounge - a contemporary woman-owned restaurant serving Caribbean and French inspired fare.

Located just behind the Twinbrook Post Office on Viers Mill, Seska Lounge is identifiable by the big, red, illuminated sign on the first floor level - with the entrance located on the ground level. Upon entering, you get the sense you’ve left Rockville and are in the middle of New York City. The modest size space is adorned in black, white and red with sleek wood tables, red bamboo and a white tile bar.

The food is sumptuous! Everything is made fresh and you can taste the passion that was put into preparing every bite! Ranging from curry from the West Indies to Asian inspired appetizers, there is something to please everyone. And vegetarians, no worries, if you don’t see it on the menu, a specialty dish will be crafted just for you! My personal favorite: dessert of course! Piping hot bread pudding - made with croissants and rum-soaked raisins, served with a side of creamy vanilla ice cream.

While the food and atmosphere are amazing, the best part of the Seska Lounge is the owner: Francesca. She is warm, friendly and treats you like family. She hails form Ghana, her mother’s birth place, and picked up the Caribbean influence from her father’s Jamaican roots.

Throughout our evening at Seska Lounge, we were able to take our time eating, enjoy the atmosphere and New Age tunes playing in the background. And, each course was followed up by a visit from Francesca to make sure we were enjoying ourselves and the food.

It was a perfect Ladies Night Out. I suspect this will be one place we’ll return to - and I hope many of you will give it a try as well! This is one “secret” that everyone should know!

Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac

This is a contributor review. We welcome submissions on all sorts of things — shopping, restaurants, performances, art, cultural events, and more. Rules: it should be in Rockville, and you should try to be nice. Get in touch with us if you would like to submit something!

Guest Column by Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac: What's Your Footprint?

>The following guest column is by Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac:

Earth Day is April 22, just a month away, and with rising fuel and food costs, there is a great urgency, more than ever, for each of us individually to think about doing our part to live a “greener” lifestyle. But before we do so, it’s important for all of us to understand what our individual impact — our ecological footprint — on the Earth is. You can measure yours by going here.

When I worked at the global nonprofit, Earth Day Network, which was created by the founders of Earth Day, the late Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes, we partnered with the nation’s leading public policy think tank dedicated to smart economics, Redefining Progress, to promote this amazing online tool that helps individuals measure what his/her carbon footprint is on Earth by taking an ecological footprint quiz. The result of the test will tell you how many Earths are needed to fulfill your lifestyle.

In honor of Earth Day and in a continuous effort to make our lives more green, I hope you’ll take the time to take the quiz. I do hope everyone, including our community leaders, will share the quiz with their friends, colleagues and family. The following quizzes are also available: The Office Footprint; Footprint Quiz for Kids and the Footprint of Nations.

I also offer a few “fun facts” that really highlight how poor environmental standards globally impact all of us:

• Most of the smog in Los Angeles is caused by pollution coming from China;
• Pollutants from fires in southeast Asian have changed rain patterns in Australia and added toxic pollutants, with adverse long-term health effects for Australians; and
• The US is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, yet we are the third largest nation in the world by land-mass and population.

So, on April 22, Earth Day, and every day, please do your part to make our world a greener, cleaner place for ourselves and our future.

Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac

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