Li Hing Mui
“Hawaii's beloved salty-sweet preserved plum: dried Chinese plums cured with salt, sugar, licorice, and anise into a chewy, intensely flavored snack. The signature taste of island crack-seed culture, also ground into a red powder that dusts everything from fruit to margaritas.”
Where it comes from
Li hing mui means traveling plum in Cantonese, and travel it did: the salty dried plum came to Hawaii in the late 19th century with Chinese laborers from Guangdong, many from the Zhongshan area, who worked the sugar plantations. Homesick for the preserved-fruit snacks of southern China, they brought the technique of curing plums with salt, sugar, and herbs like licorice and anise. In Hawaii the snack took on a life of its own as the heart of crack seed culture, sold from big jars at neighborhood crack-seed shops. The powdered form became an island obsession, sprinkled over pineapple, mango, gummy candy, and even cocktails.
On the plate
A jolt of salt and sour hits first, then a slow sweet-and-herbal wave from licorice and anise, all wrapped in a leathery, chewy plum you work down to the seed. It is wildly intense and mouth-watering, the kind of snack that makes you pucker and reach for another.
How it works
Salt curing draws water out of the plums by osmosis, both preserving them and concentrating their flavor, while the acids in the fruit stay sharp. Drying removes still more moisture for that chewy, leathery texture, and the licorice and anise glaze adds glycyrrhizin sweetness and aromatic spice that balance the aggressive salt and sour.
Variations
Salty li hing mui (the original); sweet li hing mui with extra sugar glaze; seedless li hing strips; li hing powder for dusting fruit and candy; li hing-flavored gummies, dried mango, and cocktail rims.
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 20How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓20 min active · 4320 min waiting
How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓- 110 min
Start with firm, ripe plums; wash them and pat completely dry.
- 24320 min
Pack the plums in a layer of coarse salt and let them cure for several days until they soften and release juice.
- 360 min
Rinse off the excess salt and lay the plums out to dry in the sun or a low dehydrator until shriveled but still pliable.
- 410 min
Make a seasoning syrup by dissolving sugar with crushed licorice root and a little star anise.
- 55 min
Toss the dried plums in the sweet-spiced syrup until well coated.
- 61440 min
Return them to dry again so the seasoning concentrates onto the chewy fruit.
- 715 min
For li hing powder, grind dried seasoned plum with salt, sugar, licorice, and anise to a fine red dust.
- 85 min
Store the plums or powder in a sealed jar; sprinkle the powder over fresh fruit or use it to rim drinks.
