Really? They're pretty common in Japan in season, either salted and roasted or hiding in steamed chawanmushi (egg custard).

What is bloody revolting, though, is the smell of the rotting fruit, which bears a disturbing resemblance to semen that's been sitting around for a while.

Okay, hold on a second, that's an oddly specific description. How exactly are you familiar with the scent of 'semen that's been sitting around for a while'?

How, sir, are you not?

Every autumn my mother would drive us to the local cemetery to pick up the gross fallen ginkgo seeds into a bag to take them home, wash the smelly seedcoats off, drop them onto a baking pan into the oven to roast them.

They taste and smell nothing like the vomit seedcoats, they’re kinda like pistachios but a bit rubbery and chewy. I’m still surprised they’re not more popular and that more people don’t know, but perhaps it’s because most municipalities avoid the smelly males. I didn’t realize the toxicity until checking wiki, either.

Female ginkgo trees are the ones that bear fruit and hence produce the offensive odor. But branches of a male ginko tree can (rarely) change sex and bare fruit.

I've never tried Ginko kernels roasted to the point they were crunchy. But I find the ones roasted (some times on a skewer) to the consistency of firm cooked lima beans have a flavor similar to lima beans. Preparing lima beans is much easier though they produce very different medicinal effects.

A great article about them: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-nasty-bits-gingko-nuts