Fig, Date, Almond, Sesame and Chocolate Salad

Fresh figs when fully ripe are incredibly sweet, so I prefer to chill them before eating. As I pen this introduction I am on a gulet (a traditional wide-bodied wooden Turkish boat) off the Dalaman coast with 12 others, blissfully doing nothing more than swimming and writing some of this book. In fact, I am on the deck, under the shade of the sail, having Turkish coffee. The figs we ate for breakfast this morning were more like a sweet syrup encased in a fruity flesh than actual fruit. Medjo