Mold Sharks

[SheepGravy]

Mold Shark + Puffungi
Mold Shark + Bomb Peppers

Quite possibly the 2 best foods in the game rn imo.

And with the perk for cooking the rare versions are insane. Top tier stuff. Agree or not?

[ThatTimGuy]

Mold Shark has the highest raw +% melee damage. However, I'd argue for some better food.

Dodge + Armor: Golden Dart + Golden Carrock
Melee dmg/speed + Ranged dmg/speed: Golden Pinegrapple + Golden Pewpaya
Max hp + Hp regen: Golden Heart Berry + Golden Bloat Oat
+dmg to bosses, -dmg from bosses, glow: Golden Puffungi + Golden Glow Tulip
Crit chance/damage + Melee lifesteal: Silver Dart + Golden Larva Meat

These are almost entirely farmable and most of them provide the largest bonus in their categories. These are what I eat before a boss fight, along with drinking Stoneskin (armor), Guardian (-dmg from bosses), and Enrage or Keen (+melee or ranged dmg) Potions.

Mold Shark is the best melee dmg buff you'll eat before farming golden produce. Along with Pink Palace Fish, you'll get +38.6% melee damage and +3.3% melee speed. However, Golden Pinegrapple gives +35.2% melee damage and +4.6% melee speed in a single farmable ingredient (no fishing required).

[SheepGravy]

I learn something new every day. thank you mate. time to get cooking

[Bobucles]

Don't worry about food combos. Food combos mean pretty much nothing.

Each food item adds its own stats to the meal.
Some of the stats are pretty obvious: Carrocks add defense, bloat oats add tons of food and high health regen, glow tulips add a glow buff. The tricky part is that some stats are hidden and only get revealed in gold ingredients or rare food procs.

Don't forget that different buff types don't conflict, so you can load up every single buff at a time.

Fishing ingredients aren't very good for ordinary use, by the simple fact that fishing is a fairly slow source of food. All the good ingredients are farm items, which can be bulk planted and mass harvested by the hundreds.

The ocean biome food is excellent for its incredible range/melee buffs. Carrocks are amazing(on normal) for its long duration defense buff. Tulips and peppers have useful, but short duration buffs that can be tricky to maintain. Fish can have superior versions of the same buffs, but those kind of treasures are best saved for boss encounters.

[SheepGravy]

I have stacks of golden food I am going to cook up soon. I appreciate this. I enjoy farming and fishing. Thank you

I have this open rn and going to do a bit of cooking. This was perfect timing.