“This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps,” is how The New York Times Cooking section starts a recipe for a charcuterie board, because really, there are no set rules on what to put on it. There just has to be cold cuts, cheese, bread and crackers, maybe some fresh produce.
It is literally a blank slate for you to fill. This might explain why many Filipinos added this French-inspired DIY board to their Noche Buena and Media Noche table.
All over Facebook, titos and titas shared their entries to Facebook food group Let’s Eat Pare’s #charcuterieboardchallenge featuring some of the most lavish ingredients they can get their hands on, from imported cured meats and cheeses to the plumpest grapes. Some even went as far as filling a whole table with these arrangements, inevitably turning it into a, well, grazing table. Then again we don’t make the rules—no one does, apparently, when it comes to charcuterie boards.
Amid these ultra-luxe-looking spreads, are some eye-catching boards that lure you in not with its fine, but rather ingenious choice of ingredients, that’s practical and undeniably Filipino. A charcuterie board of turo-turo favorites, anyone?