Yakitori Gizzards and Ginkgo Nut Bento

I bought a bag of gingko nuts and picked up a pack of chicken gizzards (they looked so fresh!) and decided to grill the gizzards yakitori style. While chicken gizzards are often not to everyone’s taste (even if they are delicious morsels perfect for grilling over charcoal), most people know they are edible. But have you ever had Ginkgo nuts?

Ginkgo biloba is a tree often planted for its ornamental value–their leaves turning a brilliant gold in the fall with the distinct fan shape. Many a poems have been dedicated its long lived beauty in Asia, while most westerners only know it by a few of its distinct qualities. The fruit, when ripe, smells like vomit, and the trees, in bloom, smell oddly like another bodily fluid that’s not mentioned in proper company. The fruit is also very caustic, requiring gloves to pick up lest it burns. My parents and their friends, when fall and winter hits and the fruits have dropped from the trees, will go along the sidewalk and take them home, probably to the relief of the street sweepers who had to deal with these accidentally planted female trees.

But once the pulpy fruit has been washed away, what remains is a jewel touted for its medicinal properties and memory boosting abilities–the ginkgo nut.

It’s often served as bar food in Asia, sometimes skewered and grilled, other times roasted and served with some salt and cracked pepper. The texture and taste might remind you of cheese, and it’s definitely an acquired one for sure. I like putting it in a paper bag and microwaving them until they pop, their jade green nutmeat translucent.

Since they have a very slight toxicity to them (and don’t ever eat them raw), it is said that you can only eat as many nuts as you have in years, namely, if you are 28 years old, you can have 28 nuts. However, upon further query, no one can tell you if its every day or week or month or year. In general, I try not to exceed 20 nuts in a sitting, even though it’s deliciously addictive.

The gizzards might seem tough to the uninitiated, but after grilling over smoky wood and slightly charred, sliced thin, their slightly crunchy but meaty texture makes you not want to stop eating it!

I use my teriyaki sauce recipe to marinate before grilling, skewered alternating with onions and peppers. This is where my woodburning stove really shines–in addition to supplementing the heat in my house, it also serves as a place to grill meat and impart a smoky flavor.