I guess what finally put me on the road to Slow-Carbing it was the fact that I had finally gotten my hands on the library’s copy of Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Body, and was looking at the “Chipotle method” he advocated for the non-cooking bachelor. I mean, number one, who doesn’t love Chipotle? But more importantly is number two: dude, I can make a taco salad myself that will rival any Tex-Mex bowl o’ goodies.

Thus, I present to you the Low-Carb Taco* Salad!

LOW-CARB TACO* SALAD

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef (preferably organic, though shoestring budgets may dictate otherwise)
• 1 shallot, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ground cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper (to taste; see our taco recipe for approximate amounts)
• romaine lettuce
• salsa (we used a combination of Herdez Salsa Verde and Salsa Casera, plus Texas-Texas Fresh Roma Roasted)
• white cheddar cheese, shredded
• sour cream or crème fraîche
• guacamole (1/2 an avocado, a sprinkle of salt and juice of 1/2 a lime all mashed together; keep it simple!)

Directions:

1. Salt and pepper your ground beef, then brown in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Drain off excess grease, if necessary (we used an 80/20 mixture, so there was quite a lot), return to pan, and add shallot, garlic, cumin and chili powder plus about 1 cup of water to create a sauce.
3. Simmer sauce down until water has mostly evaporated, about 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Arrange leaves of romaine lettuce in the bottom of your bowls. You can either use the leaves whole for a nice presentation or chop them up into bite-sized pieces for edible convenience.
5. Place ground beef on top of lettuce.
6. Sprinkle cheese on top of beef.
7. Add salsa, guacamole and sour cream on top as desired. We also tossed in a few pickled banana peppers for good measure.
8. Consume and enjoy!

* Tacos need not apply

Our first stop was at Jo’s Coffee (1300 S. Congress), where we got the inside scoop on their infamous “i love you so much” graffiti as well as a steaming hot cup of coffee (perfect for our 10 AM meeting time).

Keeping Austin… Japanese?

Next up (and just across the street) we hit Snack Bar (1224 S. Congress) for some Japanese-inspired breakfast food. The Tamago Yoko (or “Yoko Ono,” as staff refer to it) is a tasty mixture of cabbage, leek and shrimp made into a hash that’s mixed with eggs, bacon (or seitan for vegetarians), wasabi aioli and sriracha drizzle, plus a sprinkling of nori and bonito seaweed flakes. If that sounds a bit weird, just picture a Japanese version of an omelette, with the wasabi and sriracha providing a spicy kick. It was delicious, and set a high bar for the rest of the tour, as I was ready to devour an entire plateful! But with only 3 hours for 8 restaurants on our tour, we had to move on.

Owner Bethany Andree was awesome, giving us a fun overview of how she came to own the diner/lounge and its history serving the adjacent Austin Motel’s various clients from seedy to hipster over the years.

Here’s a photo of her with the Tamago Yoko (pre-slicing):

And a slightly blurry close-up picture of the dish itself:

Tex to the Mex

Next on our tour was the ever-popular Tex-Mex eatery Güero’s Taco Bar (1412 S. Congress), originally built as a seed and feed store in the 1800′s and converted to the enormous tacqueria it is today back in 1995. Boasting the “best margaritas in town” (where have we heard that before?!), we were able to taste a shot-glass full of their house blend of tequila, Triple Sec and fresh-squeezed Key limes, hand-shaken (not stirred!) and rimmed with salt for a refreshingly tart take on the killer marg. Okay, it was pretty damn good, but as I haven’t made an exhaustive study of the rest of Austin’s margarital offerings, I’ll withhold judgement for now. Oh, and if you’re into non-alcoholic beverages, don’t miss their limeade, made from more freshly-squeezed Key limes.

Also on hand were homemade tamales, fresh queso for dipping, and handmade tortillas fresh off the stove. Employee Jeff demonstrated just how difficult it actually is to make a perfectly round tortilla by hand, crediting his authentic Mexican tortilla-makers with the fresh corn beauties we sampled. His tortilla maker on shift was giving him dirty looks over the sorry-assed, only vaguely rounded mess he made of his attempt, and laughing at his baby girlish inability to touch a hot griddle with his bare hands. She was tough stuff!

Burgers and gourmet shakes

Back down the street, we spent a bit longer in burger joint Hopdoddy’s (1400 S. Congress), tasting their burgers, fries, alcoholic Black Cherry Hard Limeade (could limeade be the poster drink for Austin in the summer?), and even some surprise Sea Salt and Caramel milkshakes — delicious! While I’m still convinced that my own burgers are the best in town, Hopdoddy’s did serve a mighty tasty shake. I may have to return to sample more of their thick and creamy flavors, which I’ve heard are made with hand-churned ice cream. Now that’s a $5 milkshake I can get behind!

Skipping and jumping over to 1st Street (which Andy described as the up-and-coming version of SoCo, akin to the slightly gritty state of South Congress back in the 1990′s), we had a chance for a few photo ops with another infamous Austin landmark: the “Greetings from Austin” mural. Here’s my take on the scene:

Greetings from Austin, Texas!

Sweet Austin treats

Next door to the mural is La Pâtisserie by Luxe Sweets (602 W. Annie), a French-style bakery that offered us a wide variety of sweets, including chocolate eclairs, pain au chocolat, millefeuille and a citron madeleine. We sipped some sweet tea (a nod to their southern location), enjoyed their pastries, and gawked at the selection of oversized macarons. The next time I get a hankering for a Montreal-style breakfast of almondine and café au lait, I’ll know where to go!

After the sugar rush at La Pâtisserie, it might seem a bit overwhelming to immediately follow up with MORE sugar over at Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop (1905 S. 1st Street), but that’s exactly what we did. Here we got to sample some of their sugary lemon squares, as well as their Cupcake Smackdown-winning James Brown cupcakes. Can you say sugar high?

Lucky for me, the crowd was feeling the weight of all the food we’d been munching through, and there were 2 lemon squares and 2 mini cupcakes left on the table. Andy got a to-go box and asked if anyone wanted to take them, and I volunteered a home for them in Celebrity Intern’s stomach. (I actually ended up eating them later on that evening, as he’s misplaced his sweet tooth. WTF?) Woohoo, free cupcakes!

Southern grit

The group collectively weakening in our eating-related resolve, we rolled our way back to SoCo for our penultimate stop at The Woodland (1716 S. Congress), an upscale diner specializing in southern comfort foods. Here we sampled their Shrimp & Grits, featuring plump Gulf shrimp, bacon, tomatoes, green onions and Creole seasoning over cheesy homemade polenta grits. The portion was quite large for our second-to-last stop, but I couldn’t stop myself from eating it all. In fact, I almost wanted to lick the bottom of the bowl it was so good. I predict more of this delicacy (and possibly their Chicken Pot Pie, as I’m a sucker for a nice, flaky pot pie) in my immediate future. And if they ever put a Cobb Salad on the menu, Celebrity Intern will surely freak out and possibly buy stock in their company posthaste.

After a brief stop at Big Top Candy Shop (1706 S. Congress) and Monkey See Monkey Do (1712 S. Congress), we headed for our final destination: the back patio at Austin’s favorite New York-style pizzeria, Home Slice (1415 S. Congress).

NYC pizza: The challenge

Plain cheese and simple pepperoni pizzas were served up to our about-to-burst crew, along with small glasses of beer, and while Home Slice may not be the bestest New York pizza this jaded former New Yorker has tasted, they’ve certainly got the traditional NYC utility slice on their radar. Sorry, dudes, but the best NYC slice I’ve ever tasted was a hot, fresh Sicilian from some hole-in-the-wall pizza joint near East 92nd Street that may or may not have gone out of business since I first tasted it in 2001, featuring a nice thick crust, a nice thick layer of red sauce, and delicate polka dots of pesto. If you can recreate that, give me a call and we’ll talk Best Pizza Ever.

No, seriously, get on that. I’d love to eat one of those magical Sicilian slices again, and I’m fully willing to give credit where due if you can make that happen. Hearts!

All in all, I enjoyed my SoCo food tour with Andy and Lindsey (and their new tour guide to-be, Olivia), as it exposed me to lots of eateries I never would’ve checked out on my own, as well as a number of Austin stand-bys that I had yet to try. As Andy mentioned to me during our journey, many of the people who come on the Austin Eats Food Tours are actually locals, not tourists, so I think they’re definitely onto something with the concept. Since they’re constantly changing the restaurants they visit, there’s always something new to enjoy, so unless you’re hanging out on SoCo every spare moment, you’re bound to find a new favorite.

A word about the price:

While a $65 outing may seem a bit overpriced for a budget blogger to be recommending, I should also note that I’d put this tour into the “splurge” category of something you’d want to save up for. It’s definitely a fun time, you’ll get to meet some interesting new people (possibly even locals like yourself!) and experience your hometown from a fresh perspective; it’s kind of a get-away in your own city. But honestly? If you’re hitting 8 restaurants on the tour, that works out to about $8 per stop. Let’s face it: you’d undoubtedly spend much more than that at each of these restaurants if you went there on your own, so it’s really a bargain when you look at it that way.

As for Austin Eats’ other tours, they’re starting a bike tour from Barton Springs in the coming weeks (bike rentals included), and also have plans to start a mid-week fine-dining tour in the near future. I’m looking forward to hearing more about these tours, and if they start a food-truck crawl, I may have to return for more!

In the meantime, check them out online at austineatsfoodtours.com, and if you’ve been on one of their tours, we’d love to hear what you think.

If you’ve been trying to find ways to save money on expenses, we highly recommend trying a Pay As You Go phone option. Sure, they’re not as cool as the latest and greatest, but they get the job done. We use our phones for crazy, old-fashioned junk like PHONE CALLS, not downloading ringtones and games and hitting up the Internet every time we can’t figure out where we are on a good old-fashioned paper map. We also text peeps on occasion, though you get dinged if you don’t have a texting plan (depending on your provider).

Here’s how our two Pay As You Go companies stack up.

TRACFONE

Motorola W376g

The most popular PAYG phone in the U.S. is the Tracfone, for its easy-to-determine rates, no-nonsense approach, and no-frills phones. I bought a Motorola W376g flip phone with Bluetooth, a VGS camera and double minutes for life for $29.99 at Target, and it works great for my purposes.

Minutes start at $19.99 for 60 (with 90 days for possible usage) or $9.99 for 30 minutes if you don’t mind having to use them up in 30 days. Adding minutes is easy, as you can purchase them online, from your phone, or through a card purchased at lots of vendors (including Target and various convenience and grocery stores across the U.S.).

Texting is a bit annoying because it shaves off 1/3 of a minute every time you text someone OR receive a message, giving you odd amounts of time left, but overall I can’t complain. This phone does exactly what I need it to do, with no extra bells and whistles, and every time I flip it open I can see how many minutes I’ve got left and the date my phone will “expire” if I don’t add more minutes. Easy as pie, though not a great option if you tear through minutes like a wild boar on a rampage.

CRICKET

For those who chomp through minutes like crazy, Cricket is undoubtedly your best best for a PAYG device. Although Celebrity Intern hates their phone with a passion (it doesn’t flip, nor slide, nor do anything to protect the keypad from deploying the Internet—at extra cost to you—ALL. THE. TIME.), the plan itself is solid. Here’s how it breaks down:

• Pay only on the days you use your phone
• Choose from the über no-frills $1/day plan (with unlimited calling time throughout your area, unlimited INCOMING text messages, and 10-cents/message for outgoing texts) or bump it up a notch to $2/day to get unlimited talk + U.S. long distance + texting (including pix and international texts!). You can even go for the $3/day plan to get unlimited talk, texting and mobile web access nationwide, if you MUST have your precious Internets on the go.
• Dial it up to the better plan when you’re flush with cash or need to call your mom in LA for a marathon chat-sesh, or scale it back to the cheapest plan when you’re broke-ass and counting pennies
• Add any amount you like via your phone or PAYG cards purchased in convenience stores, dedicated Cricket stores, and Target or WalMart

Slightly more confusing set-up than the Tracfone, though ultimately cheaper if you like to talk a lot. Great if you can plan ahead which days you’ll NEED the phone, so you can literally only pay for certain days of the week. Granted, life is usually not like this, but if you wanted to use the phone, say, for business purposes, you could use it only 5 days a week, amounting to $20/month in phone bills vs. the usual $40+ bill you’ll get from even the cheapest of network plans.

Personally, I dig not having to watch the minutes drip down on the Cricket phone, although I absolutely HATE that it doesn’t display how much time/money is left on the phone the way the Tracfone does. Knowing you’re only spending $1 or $2, really and truly, per day you’re using the phone is comforting as well, since you can plan to do your long-distance chats and rapid-fire texting on the weekends, bumping up to the $2 plan for best effects, and then lower it back down to the $1 plan during the week if you’re making mainly local calls with fewer texts. Perfect for the penny-wise consumer!

Now, if only Cricket would offer a couple more flip phone options (they currently offer one—the CAPTR II at $39.99), they’d really be playing with fire.

RECAP

In short: if you’re a talk and text-hungry consumer, Cricket PAYgo is chirping your name. If you’re conservative with your minutes and like to have an “emergency” phone for talking and texting on the run, Tracfone is just your speed. If you want a nicer-looking phone with more up-to-date options, Tracfone is your friend, and if you don’t mind having your ass dial for you, then hit up Cricket. Both are easy to use and refill, both are cheaper than standard monthly plans, and neither requires contracts, credit checks, insane bills or hassles. Save your diñero; go Pay As You Go!

So thank the gods of audio when I discovered these little numbers: the Tascam VL-M3 speakers (currently $99.99 at Guitar Center).

Brought you by Celebrity Intern, Man About the Universe and general go-to guy for audio questions, I now offer you the following reasons why these speakers kick ass. As an important footnote, I feel I should inform you that Celebrity Intern formerly worked for a snobby, fancy-pants audio manufacturer that shall not be named here (one unaffiliated with my recommendations, FYI), and having tested almost everything available in this price range, he asserts these are truly The Best That Your Money Can Buy. While twiddling his mustache like a cartoon villain.

Okay, so the beauty of these speakers is they’re capable of being computer or multimedia speakers when hooked up to your laptop to watch a movie, but they’re not “computer speakers” per se. In other words, they don’t sound all tinny or honky like most small speakers do, but they’re actually perfect for your desk because they don’t take up a lot of space.

They also cost under $100 at Guitar Center, and the even more KA-BLAMO part is the fact that they really sound great.

Think sub-$100 speakers will sound like crap? WRONG! These are very natural sounding and won’t artificially “color” the sound, offering accurate representations of what your tunes actually sound like. Great for listening to your iTunes, checking mixes on your latest jams in the home studio, or just watching a little Netflix. It’s the perfect balance of price and performance!

To get all technical and nerd-jargony on this hoo-ha, Celebrity Intern quoth:

They have a smooth, respectably flat frequency response across the entire spectrum and surprisingly tight, defined bass (but you’re not going to be able to crank sub-bass heavy hip hop or dance music all day without damaging them). The only drawback for these little wonders is they’re not EXTREMELY loud (although definitely loud enough to be heard while you’re cooking in the other room), and they’re not magnetically shielded. However, the drivers aren’t very big, so it’s not going to be a problem if you place them about a foot away from your computer, and the cable provided is long enough to separate them out in this way. Also, due to the fact that they have no grills, you should be sure to keep them away from your cats, sharp objects, and small children.

[Ed. note: If you put unshielded speakers right next to your computer, it may erase your hard drive, hence his to-do on this subject. Hard drive death = epic musical fail.]

Since Celebrity Intern originally got these speaks with the intention of checking mixes for his musical mutations, he is happy to report that they work really well for this application. They really don’t SOUND like computer speakers, which is what we both love about them. They sound more like studio monitors (according to Celebrity Intern) or stereo-quality speaks (in my experience with those cabinet-sized beasts of yesteryear).

The Next Dimension

Also available in black (except the iMac, which SHOULD be available in black, but ISN'T; damn you, Steve Jobs!)

Now, if you want to go big or go home (in this price point), the next step up from the Tascams involves spending twice as much for a similar sounding system, i.e. very flat and clean, with no funky misrepresentation of frequencies. In this case, invest in the Audioengine 2 speakers for $199 a pair. Exceptionally well-made, with a 3-year warranty and free shipping when ordering directly from their site, you can’t go wrong. Throw in an Audioengine S8 subwoofer if you like kicking the phat bass ($349), and you’ve got a full 2.1 setup for under 600 clams.

Both of these speakers sound WAY better than most speakers costing twice as much, and if you’re already thinking of spending $50 on a cheap pair of speaks, you might as well bring the noise and bump up another $50 for the Tascams.

Bringing you, as always, champagne tastes on a beer budget, I humbly submit these recommendations to any of you who like to HEAR and ENJOY your music, and not poor misguided design chicks who like to have cool-looking yet useless statuary on their desks.

STAY TUNED: Check out Celebrity Intern’s top picks for inexpeez headphones! Sweet, sweet cans.

–

Austin, as you may already know, loves its food trucks. There are special little lots devoted to these meals on wheels, down on South Congress, and there are various pop-up eateries popping up all over the city every day.

Well, guess what? A really great one just popped up in our neck of the woods, and boy, are we excited!

The Giggling Goat is located in South Austin, and it’s currently stationed just outside the AMLI apartment complex at 1620 East Riverside. Celebrity Intern and I have been driving past it for weeks, wondering when it might pop open its magical hood for some lunchables, but after consulting the all-knowing Internet, we discovered that they are only open for dinner.

AHA!

So, first word of warning: don’t go looking for some sweet lunchtime eats, just yet. Perhaps, in time, this will be a swinging spot for the mid-day meal, but for current operations their hours are 4 to 9 PM (Tues-Thurs), and they’re open until 10 PM on Fridays and Saturdays (i.e. they’re closed Sundays and Mondays, too, so plan accordingly).

Great! So now we know where they are, when they’re open, and they’ve got a menu posted, so we notice they’ve got some hot bistro style foods on the menu: the much-recommended Cabrito Burger ($7), the Yelp!ers delight Soft Shell Crab Sandwich with Eggplant Fries ($7.50), and a Grilled Vegetable Napoleon for the veg-lovin’ types ($6.50). All of the items on their menu are under $10, despite their gourmet snob-appeal, so this interests us broke-ass foodies. We follow our noses down by the water on Saturday night to sniff what there is to sniff.

Oh, did we mention it’s BYOB? This will be even sweeter when the weather shapes up and that little pergola with its retro lawn chairs is offering a bit of shade from the glaring sun!

Parking is a little jammed, being that the AMLI residents are taking up most of the spaces (bummer, but I guess they live there and all…), but we snag a spot by the Radio Shack and mosey on over. We sniff. We sniff again. We smell delicious things and consult their chalkboard menu to confirm our selections.

Celebrity Intern ordered the Soft Shell Crab Sandwich, but was disappointed to learn they hadn’t any crab defrosted. Doh! I had originally planned to order their Sautéed Crawfish on a pan-fried squash cake, but reconsidered and ordered up one of the Cabrito Burgers instead. The owner/chef Chad Nunez was on hand, and offered us samples of a skirt steak with pumpkin risotto while we waited, so Celebrity Intern switched his order to that. We were impressed by the risotto, even by the spoonful, and I told him I was totally going to be stealing bites.

It was a chilly night, so we got our meals to go, and told the chef we would definitely be back for seafood delights (especially having accidentally bought a bottle of white wine in anticipation!), and zipped home to taste our morsels.

Chef Chad warned us not to give him a bad review without letting him know what we disliked, as he said he wants to make all his customers happy and will make everything right so long as you let him know what was on your mind. This is truly a great attitude! Plus it helps that he has nothing to fear, as his food is delightfully delicious. I think we may have even licked our take-away boxes clean…

WARNING! Photo does not accurately convey the tastiness of this Skirt Steak and Pumpkin Risotto (risotto is buried beneath the steak, but finger-lickin' good!)

Celebrity Intern gives his Skirt Steak/Pumpkin Risotto combo an A++ and is busily attempting to reverse-engineer it in our kitchen for his own gastronomic pleasures. Personally, I’m more interested in the Pumpkin Risotto, which offered a creamy blend of caramelized onions, pecorino cheese and green onions folded into a tasty rice and pumpkin mixture. Mmm.

The Cabrito Burger is small but mighty!

My Cabrito Burger was a densely-packed steaky burger slathered in honey mustard (which, incidentally, Celebrity Intern hates, but which I happen to love), a mild white cheese (white cheddar? mozzarella? I think I may have actually inhaled it before I really processed this, but I was happy to see it was NOT orange!), and sunflower sprouts, along with some salsa-sized chopped tomatoes and sweet pickles. The burger was definitely one of the tastiest I’ve had from a restaurant (we do like our home-style burgers with stinky cheese, after all), and I really enjoyed the sweet-and-salty combination of the sweet potato fries. Yum.

VERDICT: Give the Giggling Goat a whirl for dinner some evening. We’re definitely going back to try the Soft Shell Crab Sandwiches, one of these days, as we were impressed with their simple but tasty take on these dishes. We also look forward to warmer weather so we can laze in their trailer park with a bottle of wine and watch other customers enjoy their meals. We predict good things for this little goat, so get down to South Austin so you can say you’ve been giggling since the beginning!

Basically: how can a frugal foodie avoid getting hoodwinked by some cheaply-priced—and cheap-tasting—wine that isn’t worth its weight in pennies?

A few tips:

1. Judge the labels. This may sound like the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to be doing in life, making snap judgements based on how pretty or ugly a thing is, but hey, it’s not like we’re talking about someone you’re out on a date with. It’s just wine, and we’ve found that bottles with inordinately overdone graphics (or particularly underdone ones—think stick figure drawings or Comic Sans types of fonts) are usually trying to make up for the fact that the wine inside ain’t all that great. You don’t need to be a design snob to pick a winner but, in general, those with more “traditional” fonts (Times, Arial and the like) tend to taste better. Follow the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Sweetie!) and you’ll be able to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
2. Priced to move? AVOID! Here’s how we got taken in at a recent trip to the H-E-B: Beaulieu Vineyard Coastal Estates 2008 Chardonnay was on sale for only $3 (down from an original price of $9), and there were 2 bottles left. It was a steal of a deal, and I believe I even commented to Celebrity Intern “How low can you go?” Now, please remember that we previously purchased both the delightful Gato Negro Malbec and Sea Ridge Chardonnay for only $3.99 a bottle, so we knew good prices could be had for decent wine. Taking a chance on this one, we snapped up the last 2 bottles. BIG MISTAKE! While this tip depends on the retailer, to some extent, if you’re at the grocery store pondering a bottle that costs less than $3.99, we’d advise jumping up just a buck or two in order to avoid this particular brand of heartache.
   

   Bad wine--avoid! I think we were taken in by the respectable font. Watch out for the overuse of gold in your labels, as well as pointless pictures.

3. What’s hot? Who cares? Celebrity Intern and I were recently browsing the aisles at the “upscale” H-E-B in our neighborhood (y’know, the one that caters to the hipsters?), and there was a guy stocking the shelves who asked if we needed any assistance. We said we were just trying to decide, and he remarked that Zinfandels were on sale. Celebrity Intern rather cuttingly replied, “Yeah, we’re not old ladies,” to which the stocker replied, “Touché!” After we’d made our selections and moved on, I asked Celebrity Intern “Didn’t you read the Chronique this week? Apparently Zinfandels are all the rage!” To this, I believe he snorted, implying that the masses don’t know jack, and that the authors of the Chronicle’s food section are just pulling the wool over the herd’s eyes. While Food & Wine may know its shit, and you may want to start exploring wine guides if you’re serious about your vintages, it’s doubtful that the local paper has much to offer in the way of expertise. Follow your nose, your wallet and your eye for design no-no’s instead. After all, it’s what YOU like to drink, not what some “critic” thinks, that matters.

In the end, we did manage to snag an almost-as-cheap wine that was loads better than our Coastal Estates mistake. For $4, pick up a bottle of Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from New Zealand and consume with a nice pork loin. Your taste buds will thank you.

>> Got any tips to share, or favorite inexpensive wines? Tweet us @shoestringATX!

Photo by Celebrity Intern. Please note the bundling. And fingerless gloves. We are awesome.

P.S. The outdoor pool at the Four Seasons is also unseasonably warm, just FYI. There are plenty of complimentary towels out there too. Just in case you were wondering.

Bowling!

A former varsity bowler (yes, my high school was cheesy enough to allow students to achieve varsity sport status for knocking pins down with balls), I’ve had my own bowling ball gathering dust in the closet for ages. After a recent outing with friends, I had also purchased a hot new pair of bowling shoes, to avoid those creepy lane loaners and replace my falling-apart, decade-old high school pair.

Check out these kicks:

These Dexter “Joan” women’s bowling shoes are the bomb. Obviously inspired by everybody’s favorite rebellious rocker, Joan Jett (and the Blackhearts… get it?), these shoes are comfy, stylish, and smooth on the lanes. Clown shoes no more!

You can also easily obtain a pair of your own at Bowling.com for only $43.99 (with free shipping).

In addition to my fabulous shoes, I also figured you’ve got to look stylish on the lanes, even while you’re gutterballing it up (did I mention I haven’t played regularly in about a decade?), so I donned a pair of $1 socks purchased at Target to keep things looking nice and girly. Evidence:

I’m pretty sure pink and orange polka dots and black hearts together are some form of Man Repellent, but luckily Celebrity Intern is down with my particular fashion blend, and was not embarrassed to be seen in public with me.

So we hit up Westgate Lanes for two rounds of bowling shenanigans ($3.85/game or $22/hour + $2.50 if you don’t bring your own shoes), which came out to a grand total of $17.90, taxes in.

All in all, not a bad way to roll out the new year, especially if you don’t mind the teenyboppers dancing on the lane next to you, snapping pix with their iPhones (dude, *I* don’t even have an iPhone, wtf?!). Highly recommended fun (and, dare we call it exercise?), and quite affordable—especially if you want to cram 10 people on a lane and divvy up the hourly rate accordingly. W00t!

What are YOUR New Year’s Day traditions?

Instead, we just wanted to call your attention to the fact that the world’s best chips AND salsa are both made right here in Austin.

Corn chips are traditional when you’re eating salsa, and we’ve eaten our way through many a bag of gnarly Tostitos when the right salsa’s in the house. But dude: corn ain’t so great for your bod, particularly if it’s been deep fried. So what’s a salsa-lovin’ shark supposed to do?

Enter Beanitos, Austin’s very own corn free, gluten free, soy free, trans fat free, high-fiber chip made from beans!

Celebrity Intern first spotted them advertised in the pages of Edible Austin, and ripped out the ad to remind us to look for them on our next grocery trip. Hitting up the H-E-B this week (now that we’re TOTALLY ADDICTED TO THEM!), we were pleasantly surprised to find a coupon for $1.50 off a bag.

Nope, these mofo’s aren’t cheap ($3.99 a piece for a 6-oz bag, yowza!), but they are oh so worth it if you’re counting your carbs and care about healthy—and delicious—snacking. Made from actual beans, unlike most of the so-called alternatives to corn chips on the market (check your labels; most still list corn as one of their primary ingredients), the chips are as tasty as they are good for you, thanks to beans’ naturally low glycemic index. The Black Bean chips (our fave!) have a GI rating of 33, and also come in 3 additional flavors: Pinto Bean and Flax (GI 44), Chipotle BBQ (GI 42) and Cheddar Cheese (GI 43).

Invented by Austinite Doug Foreman to help trim down his own expanding waistline, Beanitos are (according to the Austin American-Statesman) a product born of trial and error in the home kitchen. Hats off to you, Doug! These are a truly exellent chip for dipping, and we can’t stop snatching up bags when we’re at the grocery store.

As for our favorite salsa to load atop our Beanitos, here at Shoestring Austin we’re devotees of the Texas-Texas brand. One of their latest additions to their line of natural, Austin-made products is the Fresh Roma Roasted Salsa.

Smoky, chunky and full of roasted flavor, we are equally addicted to this tasty salsa. Made with fresh-roasted Roma tomatoes, onions and jalapeños, Texas-Texas’ website notes that this salsa is made “sado style (roasted) with a molcajete & tejolote (crush & grind).” Any way you slap it onto a nice fresh chip, with a bit of sour cream, you’ll love it!

The best part? Texas-Texas salsas do NOT contain water, fillers, oil, gluten or preservatives, so there’s nothing but fresh, delicious ingredients in your dips. Yum!

And there you have it: Austin’s best chips and salsa!

What’s your favorite brand of chips, or way to dip?

But for those of you who—like us!—are pinching pennies, rest assured there are great-tasting budget wines that will charm both your palate and your wallet.

Here are two of our most recent discoveries:

Gato Negro

Gato Negro (that’s “Black Cat” in Spanish, for all you gringos) is a Malbec from Argentina, one of our preferred wine countries. The 2010 variety is quite good, and at only $3.99 (at Randalls) you might pass it up for being TOO cheap.

Don’t let the bargain-basement price fool you! This is a great choice for pairing with any spicy dishes like our homemade tacos or Beef Chili with Bacon and Black Beans, or anything with red meat (Bleu Cheese Bacon Burgers) or tomato sauce.

Sea Ridge

A California Chardonnay, Sea Ridge‘s 2009 variety is also an amazing $3.99 (again at Randalls). As the back of the bottle describes it, “This is a full, ripe Chardonnay with hints of tropical fruit, citrus, and butterscotch.” Celebrity Intern and I tried it with shrimp last night (see his “hot damn, shim does shrimp!” post at diet-of-insects for the recipe), and it was a great accompaniment.

I would also recommend pairing it with grilled chicken or a Caesar Salad.

More Cheap Thrills

Looking for something special for Thanksgiving, or a great gift for the holidays? Wine.com is currently offering some “spooky deals” over Halloween weekend. Check out their site for more cheap thrills, as you can save up to 50% on selections you won’t find anywhere else: