How to chop onions without crying

I recently attended a dinner party where we decided to make some guacamole from scratch together. It was then that I found out that one of my friends didn't know how to chop vegetables. Eager to learn and pitch in, he took up chopping the tomatoes, while I volunteered to demonstrate how to dice the most notorious veggie on the chopping block: the onion.

The basics: How to dice an onion

You might wonder how much explanation is really required for this basic task, but there is actually a decent amount of technique to it (though for those of you who have been chopping veggies all your life, the following section might be more interesting). I first learned how to mince an onion by watching the masterful Jacques Pepin on PBS, and this technique was later reinforced by watching the meticulous folks at America's Test Kitchen (gotta love PBS cooking shows!). Here's how to do it: