Fourth Meal

It’s about 2 o’clock in the morning. You’re trying to finish all your homework and study at least a little for that quiz you have in Astronomy. Your stomach is growling, begging you to eat something. The hunger is getting to you, making you tired and stressed. What do you do? Do you just deal with it and eat in the morning? Food is a vital source of energy and without it, studying becomes less efficient and making the effort to complete homework becomes more difficult. So the answer is: No, don’t wait until the morning! Go get some food! Every college student will be or already has been in this situation and the best thing to do is find food that tastes good, fills you up, and most importantly, doesn’t break the bank.

Based on my experiences here at Ohio State, having a late night fourth meal is an expected occurrence. I am just like the majority of college students—almost broke.  To get by, I think about my decision very carefully before I choose what I eat. Ohio State University has a magazine called Savers which offers a large assortment of food options; this includes Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, American and many more cuisines. But let’s be logical about this—many of these foods are not suitable late night meals, due to the fact that many international foods that are open till 4 in the morning are not likely to sit well in your stomach during those few hours of sleep before a long day of school. This is not meant to put a bad label on international foods at all; I love my #1 Chinese Restaurant and Pera Fresh Istanbul Food. This also does not mean that all American foods are good to eat. Specifically, I would recommend to never order hot wings at night due to the acidity. This is what you need to look for in your meal: free delivery to dorms, less than $8 (including delivery), fast service, and enjoyable food. So what we are looking for is a low acidity, Americanized, cheap meal that tastes good. What food meets all of these criteria? Pizza.

My go-to 4^th meal is almost always pizza. After a few trial and error choices for where to order this pizza at the beginning of the year, I found that Buckeye Pizza is the ideal pizza joint. They offer a large, one topping pizza for $6.99 with free delivery to dorms. That’s a great deal by any standard. Another benefit is that this pizza is not very greasy. Obviously, pizza is not the healthiest food, but we’re 18-22 year olds with fast metabolisms and more important matters at hand—not to say that a health is not important. If health is a top concern for you then exercise during weeks you expect to be up late, and maybe for lunch or dinner the next day, invest in a salad or some sort of healthy meal.

Food is essential for energy and focus. Of course, one shouldn’t eat so much that they feel sick, but should have enough to hold them over.  Another reason I choose pizza is because it has been known to be a comfort food, so it will calm stress levels while working. Buckeye Pizza is cheap, delicious, and it delivers your pizza on any night in no more than 40 minutes. Also, a great advantage is that Buckeye Pizza very conveniently remembers your phone number if you are a returning customer and they connect it to a name and delivering address. Like I said before, every college student is going to have to deal with this. If you are a Buckeye, and a typical poor college student, think about calling Buckeye Pizza for some cheap and tasty food.