I have a 200 item list of grazing board foods that I’ve personally mixed and sampled every single 2 and 3 item combination and curated every item to be acceptable to delicious in 3 part combos.

By far the two strangest combos to any guest are the spicy salami and the dark chocolate on baguette bread or the rum dates and stone stone-ground mustard on butter cracker.

The sweet and bitter of the chocolate mixes so well with the oilly spice of the meat, and the baguette bridges the textures to provide a comfortable mouthfeel by soaking it in.

For the second, the vinegar and tang of the mustard heighten the rum without taking away the sweet paste of the dates and the cracker provides enough texture to not feel like you’re eating sauce and enough salt to soften the vinegar and alcohol bite.

Honestly, it’s my favorite dinner even because it’s so much fun to watch people look at you in horror when you suggest they try something, then try it and see that horror melt away into absolute wonder.