“Smiling, almost dancing around the blade, Yashim sliced the onion in half. He sliced each half lengthways and sideways, watching his fingers while he admired the fineness of the blade.

He set a pan on the coals, slopped in a gurgle of oil, and dropped in the finely chopped onion. He reached into a crock for two handfuls of rice. He cut the herbs small and scraped them into the rice with the blade.