Your favorite "whole foods"? (Not the store.)

[Carrie L.]

I was thinking about this last night as I bit into a perfectly cooked, ice cold jumbo shrimp that I had dipped into a very spicy (horseradishy) cocktail sauce. It's such a simple food. It's just boiled in plain water, then chilled, but so darned good. It got me thinking of other "whole and perfect foods" that really only require a little salt, or maybe a single condiment. A hard boiled egg is another good example (I eat mine with Lawrey's salt.)

Okay, your turn. What's something you love that is raw or simply boiled, steamed, poached, baked or otherwise cooked with nothing but water or heat, that you enjoy immensely using one single condiment (or nothing at all)?

[Mark Lipton]

I was thinking about this last night as I bit into a perfectly cooked, ice cold jumbo shrimp that I had dipped into a very spicy (horseradishy) cocktail sauce. It's such a simple food. It's just boiled in plain water, then chilled, but so darned good. It got me thinking of other "whole and perfect foods" that really only require a little salt, or maybe a single condiment. A hard boiled egg is another good example (I eat mine with Lawrey's salt.)

Okay, your turn. What's something you love that is raw or simply boiled, steamed, poached, baked or otherwise cooked with nothing but water or heat, that you enjoy immensely using one single condiment (or nothing at all)?

Crabs, especially blue (claw) from the Atlantic, but also Dungeness.

Mark Lipton

[Carl Eppig]

Lobsta!

[David M. Bueker]

Lobster

[Robin Garr]

I think I'd go with the egg, Carrie. Not so much hard-boiled, but a whole range of goodies if you'll accept butter, salt and pepper as permissible condiments.

[Jeff Grossman/NYC]

Steak.
Lobster.
Any (sliced) vegetable off the grill... zucchini, peppers, eggplant, carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms....
Eggs, six times over.
Toasted nuts.

This is too easy!

[Fred Sipe]

A just picked honest-to-God real tomato! Nothing else required.

And fresh sweet corn with just a 5 minute steam bath.

[Karen/NoCA]

corn on the cob (sweet white) with nothing
Cherokee Purple and Sungold Gold tomatoes with coarse sea salt
Artichokes
Thick sliced Globe squash cooked until caramelized and drizzled with fresh lemon
Baked potato

[Mike Filigenzi]

You guys have pretty much hit them -

Crab (I'm more a crab guy than a lobster guy), sweet corn, baked potato, steak.

[Rahsaan]

In this season, it's hard not to think of peaches, plums, nectarines and berries when talking about whole and perfect foods!

[Bill Spohn]

Easy.

Only two ingredients!

One fat slab of foie gras, seared in a hot dry pan

One sprinkle of fleur de sel

30 second preparation time

Can't get simpler (or arguably better) than that!

[MichaelB]

Spring peas, not the toughies out there now. Queen Anne might not have been the smartest British monarch, but she knew her legumes!

[Jenise]

A just picked honest-to-God real tomato! Nothing else required.

And fresh sweet corn with just a 5 minute steam bath.

First two things that occurred to me, too.