Urban Foraging: Ginkgoes
Mon, Nov 9, 2009
Author: Kenji Lopez-Alt (41 Articles)
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is a contributing editor for Cooks Illustrated Magazine, runs a private chef business, KA Cuisine, and writes a weekly column on burgers and food science for SeriousEats.com. He is also an occasional co-host of America's Test Kitchen . Kenji holds a BS from MIT and lives with his wife in Harlem.
Posted by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
Provided you aren’t afraid of a little dog piss or the occasional case of lead poisoning, the city (both Boston and New York!) offers a wide range of forage-able edibles. You just have to know where to look. Here’s what’s in season right now:
Ginkgo nuts, asides from being one of the best known examples of a living fossil, reputedly having therapeutic benefits including memory and concentration enhancement, and possessing unique reactivity with a-Hydroxy Lactones toward Na BH4 (whatever the hell that means), also happen to grow on a particularly hearty tree that does well in urban environments. The females of the species are one of the few females I know that have delicious nuts.
Like the white truffles of Piedmont or the striper spots on Stellwagen Bank, the exact location of the female ginkgo trees in your city is a carefully guarded secret, but here are two tips to help you locate one.
- Walk through wooded areas (a good park will do) until you smell something that strongly resembles dog feces. Ginkgos produce butanoic acid, which gives them the uncanny BM-like smell.
- Look around. If you see someone walking their dog with a plastic baggie, it’s probably best to move on. If, on the other hand, you see a Chinese lady bent over the ground with a shopping bag in her hands, it’s a good bet she’s picking up ginkgos. I’m generally not in support of racial profiling, but I’ve never not seen a Chinese lady below a producing ginkgo tree. Reallly.
Once you’ve fought the Chinese lady over the nuts and made off with a good stash (lots of people are allergic to the outer stinky flesh, so wear gloves), it’s super simple to prepare them. Bring them home and peel off the flesh under cold running water. At this point, you can keep them frozen for up to a few months.
Put them in a dry pan, and turn the heat on high. Cook them, shaking the pan constantly, until they’re slightly charred on the outer shell. You may hear some hissing from the steam escaping, and if you’re really unlucky, pardon —the occasional nut might pop on you.
Now, while they’re still hot, break your nuts one at a time with the bottom of a skillet just enough to crack the shell (you can also use a nut cracker). Peel them, and eat.
And if you can’t find a producing ginkgo tree, no worries. Head to Chinatown where that Chinese lady you couldn’t find under a ginkgo tree earlier will be selling her wares for about $10/pound.
Tags: Kenji Lopez-Alt
I find that they smell more like vomit than feces to me.
DEFINITELY wear gloves. Gingkoes can cause a contact dermatitis that’s very similar to poison ivy, especially in people who are allergic to things like poison ivy, mangoes etc.
I unfortunately once passed a tree with particularly large fruit (and if you find such a tree, don’t tell anyone! Bigger is better!), and not having suitable protection for my hands, picked up a bunch of nuts. A day or two later, my hands were absolutely fine, but my mucous membranes were a disaster. I had a poisonivy like rash that covered my face like a raccoon mask, and I was extraordinarily swollen and itchy in my other mucous membranes, you know, down below. It was AWFUL!! And it lasted about 2 weeks. I barely got any sleep.
WEAR GLOVES UNTIL YOU’VE WASHED ALL THE FLESH OFF THE SEEDS! I can’t stress that enough!!!!!!!!!!
After a few days of staring at the female ginkgo tree that’s along my daily walk, I muscled up the courage, gloves, and plastic bags. The flesh was fragrant enough in the well-ventilated outdoors, so I squeezed the seeds out from the fruit before putting them in my bag. Even after thorough washing, my roommates kept asking about the awful smell. Desperate that someone would “lose” the bag before I had time to roast the seeds, I dumped them in a bowl with some water and plenty of baking soda. The chemical magic that resulted could have won a third grade science fair. Next time I’ll have the baking soda at the ready as soon as I get home.