Is there any single food so perfect as a MANGO?

I think the potaoe is the worlds greatest invention. In it's original form, you can cook it in miriad ways. (I won't go into a Forrest Gump shrimp riff here.) You can make flour with it, and with that, make more food and paste, use it as fuel, make little projectiles and blow them out of straws, make them into house plants .... and on and on! Boy oh boy, they're great!

I love mango, but tofu is the almost perfect food. c.i.

Sozobe, this is funny! I nearly posted a thread this morning praising the perfectness of blueberries!

chocolate

I agree with Vivien, chocolate wins by a golden mile. c.i.

But chocolate is an end result, like cheesecake. You take the cocoa beans, and you add this, and you add that... You can just grab a ripe mango off the tree and eat. (No disagreement from me on the wonderfulness of chocolate, though. )

Similarly, you don't usually eat tofu plain. (Do you?) It's great as an ingredient, though (I agree.) Oh and also there isn't, like, a tofu bush -- soy beans have to be processed (but I'm noticing a bean product trend...)

Now blueberries are exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of. They ARE wonderful, aren't they? Especially freshly picked, still warm from the sun... mmmmmmmmmmmm!

mmmm, going to get more blueberries..... they're huge, this batch.

OK, who's had almonds off the tree? I think almonds are near-perfect too.

Oh and I agree that potatoes are a wonder, fealola. They also require a few more steps between ripe --> eat, but I just chastised Setanta earlier today for expecting people to hew too closely to the "purpose" of a thread, so I'll give you that one.

They do all kinds of interesting stuff with tofu - we even buy tofu ice cream. c.i.

Oooh, almonds off a tree!! Sounds good! I've only had processed almonds.

OK Sozobe I'll give you that - how about freshly picked raspberries? we picked some this week mmmmmmmm!

Chestnuts, but they do have to be roasted (an open fire is wholly unnecessary and will likely result in burning - you actually do better in the - gasp! - microwave). :-D

For a food that doesn't need anything to be eaten, I'll vote for cherries.

mmmmm, cherries and raspberries.... I love all berries, some more than others though.

The pineapple!

Yes. AVOCADO. Deserves caps.

WaterMelon?

Nature's perfect food is the cinnamon/brown sugar PopTart.

But I'm still disturbed by the instructions on the packet.

"TO OPEN LIFT SEAL AND TEAR"

-ouch-

The answer to your question is Yes -
<img src = "http://www.boomspeed.com/thinkzinc/strawberry.jpg">
Perfection epitomised!