In one of my earlier notes I posted having eaten some kind of green bean I thought might be a soybean.  It was actually a ginkgo nut. 

In Shanghai there were women collecting something from the trees in the fall, and I asked my tutor who told us it was ginkgo nuts.  I didn’t know ginkgo trees had nuts, and never actually saw a ginkgo nut let alone ate one. 

Apparently only female ginkgo trees have these nuts which grow sort of like plums and have a terrible smell.  Once they have been peeled they look something like a pistachio nut, still on the shell.  Yesterday I saw some in shells at the foreign grocery store – including the English name. 

Last night, at yet another Yakatori restaurant I actually ordered ginkgo nuts so I could be sure.  Three nuts (without the smelly plum part, or the shell) came on a skewer.  They are good – not hard like most nuts, more chewy, and sometimes they have have a pine-ish flavor, sometimes not.  Here they seem to be served grilled or fried.  I’m sure there are additional ways as well. 

Midwestern girl that I am, you would think I would have known if I was eating a soy bean…