What do you think of at 9 p.m. on a Thursday? My mind is mostly on food, school and sleep. My friend and old roommate can attest to this, but my favorite question to ask around this time was, “You know what sounds really good right now?” 

This is for our snack-loving readers who really want to know what is better: Pizza rolls or pizza bagels? The snack duels continue with these cheesy, tomato-ey bundles of goodness. This will either make you hungry, or may influence what you pick up at your next Walmart spree.

For many pizza-lovers, the components of a pizza are suited on any medium. Whether that be in bagel or roll form, there is something about these pizza snackers that separates them from one another. To them, there can only be one superior pizza snack.

Hannah Mouradian, sophomore neuroscience major, said she would choose pizza rolls over pizza bagels, because of how conventional this pizza snack is.

“I prefer pizza rolls, just because the toppings on pizza bagels sometimes fry off, and you’re left with a sad little piece of bread,” Mouradian said.

Besides wanting to avoid sad bagels with fried pizza toppings, Mouradian said you can easily heat up pizza rolls, while getting all that pizza flavor no matter what.

“For some reason, I feel like pizza rolls are more authentic than pizza bagels, even though they might use the same type of ingredients,” she said.

For those in Team Pizza Rolls, Mouradian would recommend choosing your pizza rolls from stores like Walmart or WINCO, but also investing in a name brand may ensure better quality rolls.

“Sometimes, you just gotta splurge a little bit,” Mouradian said.

For those looking for a good setting to enjoy your five-star quality pizza rolls, Mouradian said a late night after a long day of work or studying is an ideal time to reward yourself with pizza rolls. When it comes to a side and drink to embellish the flavor of these pizza rolls, she does not stand alone with her choices.

“I [usually] put ranch on my pizza, so I eat ranch with my pizza rolls. I think it tastes really good,” Mouradian said. “For a drink, since I usually eat when they’re really hot, so I drink water because I burn my mouth.”

As appealing as ranch sounds with pizza, I can recount a time I was shocked by a person’s ranch combo. In the third grade, there was a pair of twins in my class who would enjoy that pretty common pizza-ranch combination. However, this was not the only situation they would involve their favorite dressing in. They would indulge in ranch-covered lasagna, which as a fan of lasagna, kind of irked me.

For Mark Strong-Shinozaki, sophomore computer science major, pizza bagels would dominate pizza rolls any day.

“When I was younger, my sister would make us pizza bagels,” Strong-Shinozaki said. “Also I enjoy the way they taste more than pizza rolls.”

Strong-Shinozaki said he thinks pizza bagels offer more quality taste than pizza rolls do.

“I feel like a lot of the pizza rolls, you just pop into the microwave and they come out soggy. They never have that taste you’re looking for,” he said.

While pizza rolls are relatively easy to make, it’s difficult to customize them to your own liking aside from getting to choose a dipping sauce.

“When you actually make a pizza bagel, you toast the top, spread the marinara sauce, sprinkle it with cheese and finally add your [choice of] toppings,” Strong-Shinozaki said.

As a freshman, Strong-Shinozaki would often splurge on pizza bagels from Einstein’s, but now he makes his own from the comfort of his apartment. He said there is much more flexibility and creativity involved when you make your own pizza bagels.

“I think pizza bagels are definitely more like a snack, than a meal,” Strong-Shinozaki said. “It’s more like one of those things where you’re hungry but don’t want to make an entire meal, so you make a pizza bagel.”

In terms of good sides, a vegetable-type side would go well with pizza bagels, Strong-Shinozaki said. He said he thinks of pizza components as similar to pasta, so steamed vegetables alongside that garlic-flavored bagel base are a delicious pairing.

“Water, a Sprite or a rootbeer go really well with pizza bagels,” Strong-Shinozaki said.

Whether in roll or bagel form, I love pizza in all its shapes and sizes. Except in a jelly bean, because that is just disrespectful. If you hadn’t noticed, we managed to use the word pizza about 44 times. In other news, please continue to fuel our college students’ culinary criticism section, we really enjoy it.