Food use?

Wow i can't post on general or job forums,
Any tanks and dd's that can recommend what food to use on
paladin 45 and dragon 46?
Any recommendations would be welcomed
Thanks

I buy walnut bread for my PLD from an NPC in Camp Drybone I think. It gives good stats for tanks and it's always available.

Walnut bread is one of the lower level foods, and while you can use it so you just have something for xp bonus, it's far from ideal. As you're likely well aware, there's several categories of food that determine the main stats increased, and within these categories lower level food gives a higher % but a lower cap, with higher level food lowering the % but increasing the cap. This means you need to use higher level food for more stats as you level up, but using the highest level food at low levels will be far less effective than appropriate food. All food grants an increase to vitality, with a second stat based on the food category, and a third wildcard stat that has no real rhyme or reason and is a super low increase.

Now, with that stated, a good place to check for future research is the market boards. Their meals section has all the food listed first by category, then by level. These categories aren't actually named in-game, but it becomes fairly obvious when you look at the market board listings.

For Paladin, you're looking at grain based foods, which boost Parry rate. Thankfully, the game is designed such that items gathered by level 45 gatherers are used in level 45 recipes to make level 45 items, for the most part. So, I can take a stab at it and say La Noscean Toast would work well for you.

For Dragoon, things are a bit more tricky. Unlike 1.0 or FFXI, there isn't really food that just provides a direct boost to your main damage stats. Rather, you have meat based dishes like Jerked Beef (Skill Speed), Egg foods like Scrambled Eggs (Crit Rate), Freshwater foods like Stuffed Cabbage (Accuracy), or Mushroom dishes like Button Mushroom Saute (Determination). Whichever you choose depends on what's important to you. Also important to note is that these percentages are taken of your stats AFTER gear, and as such are only effective if you're also geared well for your level.

Finally, given that I don't know your stats, these are all simply a guess.

Urthdigger's recommendations are good.

La Noscean Toast is ideal for PLD as it's the highest level +Parry food you can get before going into the double-star foods (which have stat requirements so high that they may likely be a downgrade from toast). For DRG, the foods I would recommend at the 45+ Level range are Buttons in a Blanket (High +Determination and Low +Crit Rate) or Deviled Eggs (High +Crit Rate and Low +Acc). Generally you don't need Accuracy enough to eat the accuracy-focused Freshwater foods as long as your gear is up-to-date.

ty all.
I appreciate the help :)
food is something that confused me when i read the charts