Locally made Li Hing: Yick Lung brand

Li Hing Everything

The Yick Lung brand of Li Hing Mui, also sometimes called “crack seed” (which is a wetter, literally cracked Li Hing Mui seed) and other related preserved fruits and sweets under that brand dominated endcaps at the checkout stand at the neighborhood Long’s Drugs and Star Market (the latter now only a memory) during the 70′s and early 80′s when I grew up here in Hawaii (dating myself). You can’t mistake that classic yellow label with the rounded top. Remember that?!!!
While Yick Lung has since pulled out of this particular market, today you can find Li Hing flavored snacks under a number of new labels at grocery stores and other retailers all around the islands. Most of which maintaining the quality I remember Yick Lung offered, with the key exception being that Yick Lung was manufactured right here in Honolulu (made in Hawaii) at their former facility on Dillingham Boulevard (gotta’ miss that). This while the brands available today are mostly repackaged from sources in foreign countries.


According to the Wikipedia article on Li Hing Mui, the name translates in Chinese to “traveling plum”, with Li Hing meaning “traveling” and Mui meaning “plum”. I’ll assume being its preserved makes it easily portable, therefore the adjective “traveling”.
Now with the widespread availability of Li Hing Powder, we’re seeing more and more culinary uses for it. Local snack companies offer the everything from Li Hing Arare (Japanese rice crackers), Li Hing lollipops, Li Hing Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms, to an ever-growing variety of Li Hing dried fruits, such as these Fuji Apples…