Korean Job Discussion Forums

[korea.teacher]

My street is lined with trees that are dropping small round orange
"somethings"on the ground, and "frankly speaking," smell like barf mulch. What the hey?

[T-J]

Those would be Ginkgo trees. 은행나무 in Korean.

[young_clinton]

Ginkgo's are notorious for smelling bad. The trees are kind of cool actually.

[schwa]

I love ginkgos.

They're incredibly ancient. According to wiki, the ginkgo ...is a unique species of tree with no close living relatives. The ginkgo is a living fossil, recognisably similar to fossils dating back 270 million years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba

Koreans value the seeds, as stamina food of course. They're tasty. The Tudari restaurant chain offers grilled skewers of them as an appetizer, or at least used to.

They're a handsome boulevard tree. Towards the end of october or early november, the leaves turn dazzling yellow.

[Beeyee]

[EZE]

[laynamarya]

You can also stir-fry them or cook them with your rice. My father-in-law cooks them for me when I have a cold.

I read somewhere that you shouldn't eat too many, though, as they are mildly poisonous. 5-6 should be fine.

Incidentally, gingko trees can be male or female. Only the female ones smell. In the US, they usually line the street with male trees only, and then plant a female or two hidden behind a building somewhere so they can cross-pollinate without stinking up the street.

[porshe]

yea in the park where I live they are all over the place, I was wondering why can't they clean up that smell. I'ts horrible, I know it's a cool thing for koreans to cook but nobody wants to smell this. But finally after 1 month someone cleaned up the smelly mess. Nothing aganst the Ginko tree.

[andrewchon]