Nobody who’s smelled ginkgo fruits for the first time has ever said, “Yeah, I think I’m gonna have to eat some of that.”

If you haven’t experienced them first hand, well, they have the aroma of something that maybe was once food but has since passed through one or two digestive organs before finding its way to the nostrils.  Dog vomit, in other words.

But I had read that the seeds inside the little stink bombs are a delicacy in Asia, and we’ve all heard that ginkgo supposedly has health benefits, so when I came across this woman picking them up off the street in the Hollywood neighborhood of Portland last week, I knew I had to check this thing out for myself.