The East Village of New York is rapidly becoming nirvana for great food, especially international. The Filipino, Mexican, Indian, Japanese, and even Ethiopian options here are top notch. In fact there are so many great options these days, that you can spend a full day sampling just on St. Marks between 1st and 3rd Avenues and only hit a small portion of them. Here are the highlights that should be on your bucket list.

2014 was the first year of my newfound hobby of marathon running. Last fall, I ran the New York City marathon and had planned to try to run Philadelphia three weeks later, figuring I’d already be in training shape. When the morning arrived, I decided I was still way too sore from New York to attempt Philly. I pledge to try again in 2015. After running the Belfast marathon in the spring, a race where my goal was to finish without feeling like I was dying, my goal for Philly was to shave some time off my finish time.

Belfast’s newest Michelin star restaurant, and only the second after Ox sets the bar high with food, drink, and ambiance. Getting a table is a tricky affair, but if you are willing to wait a while, you can get one far out. But the real question is, is it worth the wait and the hype? Through the Looking Glass: Ambiance and Atmosphere Entering through the attached Dean’s Fish restaurant, there’s a definite feeling of having arrived when getting to the upscale EIPIC portion through another door.

On this most cherished 4th day of October, National Taco day, it seems fitting to reflect back on probably the best taco town I’ve visited, Houston, TX. San Antonio may have better Mexican food, and Austin better BBQ, but Houston nails the perfect intersection of Tex and Mex and has some killer tacos. Tacos a Go-Go Tacos a Go-Go is a Houston local taco joint with two locations in the city.