OPINION: The best foods to get from KwikTrip

On the first day of my junior year of college here at Minnesota State, I was feeling many, many different things. I had just moved into my studio apartment and didn’t have any roommates, so I felt lonely.

The long, careless, sunny days of summer vacation were over, replaced by school rearing its ugly head (no hate to you Stomper, you’re gorgeous) in my rear view mirror as I drove to campus.

But the feeling I felt the strongest, the feeling that started in my gut and rumbled up to my heart like a scene from Indiana Jones, was hunger. I had just moved into my apartment and I didn’t have any food in the place yet. The only thing stocked in my cabinets was dust, and the only thing in my fridge a mysterious stain that the previous tenant had left without cleaning.

My apartment sat right next to a local gas station, Kwik Trip. I figured I was in the mood for food that resembled a pre-packaged Fisher Price kids’ kitchen set, so I decided to check it out and see what grub they had.

Imagine my shock when I bit into my gas station cheeseburger and didn’t immediately contract food poisoning; imagine my further stupefaction when I realized that this food was actually tasty!

I have since gone to Kwik Trip to get a quick bite less times than is financially smart, and more times than I’d care to admit. I also had a brief stint as a Kwik Trip crew member for the first semester of my junior year, so when it comes to unwarranted opinions on the best food to get at the gas station, I’m practically a Selena Gomez in a sea of Hailey Biebers. (For those not keeping up with the drama, that’s Gen-Z for saying ‘I’m a pro.’)

Number one on my list of best foods to get during a quick trip to Kwik Trip is the macaroni and cheese. Words cannot fully encapsulate my feelings toward the gooey grandeur; rather, a series of pleasured squawks, happy wails, and volcanic exhales as I realize the food is too hot to eat.

The boneless wings are also very delicious. They come in many different genres: barbecue, buffalo, Caucasian (plain, no sauce or seasoning.) You can even buy them frozen if you’re too ashamed to eat them in the store. Wimp.

Number one for me though, beating out all the other foods, is the frozen pizza. There are many different frozen pizza brands placed throughout the store, set up to deter you from reaching the finish line and getting the actual good frozen pizza.

Pothole pizza, Meat Sweats. If you don’t like meat on your pizza it may not be the type of pizza for you, but if you’re the type of person that eats pizza with just cheese on it, I fear for your mental stability and advise an immediate mandatory 72-hour-hold in your nearest asylum.

A smattering of sliced pepperoni. Jumbo sausages all over, great flavor with no rubbery feeling. The cheese is perfect, not a pathetic skimpy amount like many others. The crust gets crispy but not burnt. And for under ten dollars, the pizza isn’t a steal. It’s a five-star robbery.

Kwik Trip also has a delicious set of dessert options, ranging from donuts, to pies, to cookies. The Peanut Butter cookies are the best, undeniably. If you throw a four pack in the microwave for thirty seconds, close your eyes and only half-taste them, they’re essentially the same as fresh baked cookies.

There was a brief period of time where Kwik Trip discontinued their peanut butter cookies, in an effort to expand their cookie palette. Imagine my horror when I walked into the gas station, went to the cookie section and saw nary a peanut butter cookie. Where did they go? Who’s going to eat white chocolate macadamia berry? Why are there tears in my eyes?

Write to Joey Erickson at joseph.erickson.2@mnsu.edu