Li Hing Mui in the Glass

Oʻahu and the Hawaiian Islands

Origin

Li hing mui belongs to the Chinese preserved-fruit tradition that came to Hawaiʻi with the Chinese labourers who arrived on the plantations from 1852. It is sold in the islands through crack seed shops, where candied, salted and dried plums, mangoes, lemons and ginger are kept in glass jars and sold in small bags. The powder made from the dried salted plum has since passed from the confectioner's counter into the glass, where it rims cocktails, seasons fruit drinks and is stirred into lemonade, a use that belongs to the local table and not to any one homeland.

Description

Li hing mui is a Chinese preserved plum, dried and salted and often sweetened, with a flavour that is at once sweet, sour and salty. Ground, it becomes a fine reddish powder, the most versatile product of the crack seed shop: it is dusted on shave ice and malasadas, used to coat fresh fruit, and mixed into drinks. In the glass it appears as a rim of powder on a cocktail or a margarita, as a whole dried plum left to steep in a drink, or as a pinch whisked into fruit juice and syrup.

III

The Thread

—Suanmeitang is the chilled drink of smoked sour plum, which, like li hing mui, rests on the preserved plum of Chinese kitchens and sets sourness against sweetness. It is made as a steeped and sweetened infusion, whereas li hing mui in the glass is a salted powder or whole fruit added at the last. Chinese

—Umeshu steeps preserved ume in spirit and sugar, so that the plum gives its sourness and fragrance to the drink, as li hing mui does. It is a long maceration of the green fruit in alcohol, while the Hawaiian use is a quick dusting or short steep of a salted dried fruit. Japanese

—The Mexican michelada is rimmed with salt and ground chilli, and often with a salted pickled-fruit paste, so that salt, acid and heat meet the drink at the lip, the principle behind the li hing mui rim. Its heat comes from chilli, whereas the li hing mui rim gets its depth from the salted plum. Mexican

Flavour Context

Li hing mui is drunk with sweet and acidic fruit: pineapple, lilikoʻi, guava, lemonade, and cocktails built on citrus. The salt and the sour of the plum sharpen sweetness and lift the fruit, so that a sugary drink reads as balanced instead of cloying. It sits comfortably beside shave ice and malasadas for the same reason, the salt giving the sugar an edge.

V · Quality Hierarchy

Powder or whole fruit from a dedicated crack seed shop, where the plums are properly… A good commercial li hing mui product with real plum character and a measured salt.…

VI · Sensory Tests

smell: A good powder smells of dried plum, sharp and salty with a sweet fruit note behind it. The aroma…

VII · Where the dish lives or dies

The dish lives or dies at the rim and the pinch: the glass edge must be moistened lightly and dipped once, so that a thin…

Pillars V — VII

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