There are meals in life that are great for many reasons. Sometimes a waiter can stand out as very knowledgeable, or perfectly figure out your likes and preferences and tailor suggestions to you. Other times a setting may make the meal, such as our incredible seafood on the Croatian Island of Hvar under the night sky with the sea breeze drifting in. Sometimes instead the food can speak for itself and be perfection of a specific technique or wildly imaginative.

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.

2015 was a deliciously decadent year for me. We explored a huge number of new and new to us restaurants in NYC, had a gastronomic adventure in Portland, Maine, and had a truly epic meal at the Michelin star tasting menu restaurant EIPIC in Belfast. Here are some of the best things I had all year. New York Babu Ji Babu Ji is hands down my favorite restaurant of 2015. Something about the playful menu, delicious dishes, and self serve beer fridge resonated with me and I cannot wait to go back.

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.

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.

With Game of Thrones filming many of its most popular scenes in the city and the influx of cruise tourism to southern Croatia, Dubrovnik is seeing increasingly huge crowds. However, there is still a ton to see and experience in the city and with some guidance, you can escape the crowds. Here are the top, can’t miss sights and experiences in and around Dubrovnik. What to See Historical Old Town Dubrovnik has an incredibly interesting history that is perhaps too complex to easily explain to tourists, much like Croatia in general.

After spending the last two years at Delaware’s Firefly Festival, we decided to play closer to home this year and try out the quickly growing Governor’s Ball on Randall’s Island in NYC. Once our friends at the Infatuation announced that they were curating this year’s food “playlist”, it was a no brainer. So which food and bands were the best? Streets of Laredo The funky folk fanfare of Streets of Laredo opened up the day.

Belfast is a city with a troubled past, a glamorous scene, beautiful people and supercars like the DeLorean. It’s basically Bruce Wayne. Since the violence of the “Troubles” has eased, Belfast has come into it’s own quietly with an amazing restaurant and bar scene. Even the New York Times has discovered the resurgence of this city with a new 36 Hours in Belfast feature in January featuring some of the local hotspots and landmarks.

My second marathon, one where you can wake up at 8:45 and make the start, and the best places to eat for preparation and recovery in the beautiful and not-too-distantly troubled city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. When I finished the NYC marathon last November, I knew I could do better. Four hours of standing around before the start in freezing wind, too much tapering, and first marathon nerves meant I finished, but wasn’t very happy with the result.