Most food blogs concentrate on the fancy stuff. They track new trends, review posh restaurants and give meticulous instructions on how to prepare impressive dishes. Don't get me wrong, I love that stuff and I love writing about that stuff, but there's more to the world of food than the alpha recipes.
Sometimes, when your wallet's light and your stomach's empty, you're willing to make some compromises with your taste buds. No place on planet Earth knows that circumstance quite like the classic American convenience store. Whether it's a corporate chain or a local family-run operation, these cramped quick-stop shops are home to some unique products you're less likely to find in bigger grocery outfits. Every once in a while, you run into an item that surprises you with its quality, especially considering its price. The following are three such surprises on to which I've stumbled in my local convenience store.
Reser's Deluxe Combo Pizza
Reser's is one of the king corporations for convenience store food. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of most of their products. A lot of them taste the same; excessively salty, low-grade beef. I don't care if it's chicken-fried steak, swedish meatballs or a microwave burrito, it's probably going to have what I call "that Reser's flavor". For the price, you can't really expect more. Their largest items run under $9.00 and provide several pounds of food. This is why the Reser's pizzas are so impressive. For approximately $6.00 (depending on local tax), you get two pies the size of your average Tombstone or DiGiorno. As far as frozen pizza goes, Reser's isn't half bad. In fact, they're as good as Tombstone, but still several steps behind DiGiorno or California Pizza Kitchen. Reser's Deluxe Combo has a pretty generous smattering of toppings, including pepperoni, sausage and peppers. The sauce doesn't taste like ketchup, which is a plus for convenience store pizza, and the cheese is more than passable. Best of all, I've found Reser's pizzas to be light on the grease. All in all, a pretty spectacular buy.
Colombina Fancy Assorted Cookies
Convenience store snack sections are strange places. Big names like Planter's share space with the most off of the off-brands. It's just assumed that if you've never heard of it, it's probably going to be bad. While I can't say that the Colombina cookies were the best I've ever eaten, at $3.00 I'm just astounded they didn't taste like cardboard. For the most part there's not a lot of variety in flavor, but that flavor isn't bad. Most of the cookies have a simple buttery taste with a hint of vanilla and coconut. There are two chocolate cookies, one filled, one plain. They do have a simple cocoa tone to them reminiscent of chocolate milk powder. The box also has an individually-wrapped package of crumbly wafers. While I wouldn't put out a plate of Colombina Assorted's for dinner guests, they're certainly good enough for a cheap mid-week dessert.
Pearson's Salted Nut Roll
By far the star of this update, Pearson's Salted Nut Roll is a pretty amazing low-budget candy bar. Aside from the uninspired name, the SNR is so good it deserves equal billing with major corporate candies. In short, the SNR is a Snickers without the chocolate and about three times the peanuts. The nuts themselves have as good a flavor as any of the canned, roasted varieties you'll find one rack over and the caramel is plentiful enough to keep everything from falling apart but not enough to make the experience overly chewy. The whole thing is bundled around a bright-white nougat core. At first the artificial whiteness of the nougat is disconcerting, but then it just becomes part of the aesthetic experience. The SNR is big, filling and doesn't taste cheap at all. If you happen to find one in your local quickie-mart or gas station, definitely give it a try.