Take a fork and pierce each eggplant a few times — steam needs somewhere to go, otherwise you have an explosion on your hands, and nobody wants that. Then hold the eggplant directly over the gas flame with your tongs and turn it slowly, patiently, for a good 20 to 25 minutes total. You will hear it pop and hiss, the skin will go fully black and start to collapse inward — that is exactly what you are after. Do not rush this. If you only have a skillet or a grill grate, use it, but get it screaming hot first and turn the eggplant often. The smoke is the whole recipe. No char, no point.

Give the eggplants five minutes to cool — just enough that you can handle them without cursing. Cut each one in half lengthwise and scoop all that soft, pale, collapsing flesh into a bowl with a spoon; the blackened skin goes nowhere near your plate. What you are left with should smell like an open fire. Let it sit another two or three minutes — the eggplant will weep a little water, which you want out of there before anything else happens.

Press the flesh gently to push out any excess liquid, then move it to a clean bowl. Now in goes the yogurt — cold, straight from the icebox, and do not apologize for it. Mince your garlic fine and stir it through, add a generous pinch of salt, then squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Taste it. Adjust. The yogurt should be sharp, the garlic should have some bite, the smoke should come through underneath all of it. Do not overmix — you want a little texture in there, not a paste.

Spread the salad onto a wide plate — this is meze, it needs room. Make a small hollow in the centre and pour in your olive oil, not shy about it, let it pool a little. Dust the red pepper flakes over the top so they land bright against the white. Tear the parsley roughly — do not chop it to nothing — and scatter it across everything. Bring it to the table immediately. The oil carries the flavour down, the pepper sits on your tongue, and the whole thing disappears faster than you expect.