I spend sometime in Hawaii growing up where I quickly became very fond of a Chinese dried fruit called Li Hing Mui. It’s a Plum with Sugar, Salt, Licorice Extract and Aspartame. I’m told the name means walking plum as it was a common food when traveling in times of old.
It’s one of those sweet and sour treats. Sweet in small bites, but face wrinkling sour in big ones. Definitely an acquired taste for anyone brave enough to try it.
Anyone else ever tasted it?
I love it. There happens to be a nearby Asian market that I can get it from. High bloodpressure, here I come!
I grew up in Hawaii and those and Pork Hash are the two things I miss most. I remember that when I worked as a bouncer I used to walk around with a li hing mui in two fingers and sucking on it periodically. Once, another curious bouncer asked me for one and I gave it to him and he popped the whole thing into his mouth and sucked hard. He looked at me like I shot him. 
From your description and the picture in Wikipedia, that looks very similar to what I know as “waa mui”, which is usually more greyish instead of red, but still salty and sweet and sour nonetheless. I loved that stuff and ate a lot of it when I was little. I don’t live in Asia anymore, and I don’t have a strong craving for it or anything, but I would still enjoy it if I happen to come across it.
Another ex-Hawaii kid here. The proper thing to do with it, of course, is to stick it in tequila.
Yeah, my wife buys sweet-salty-sour preserved plums from time to time (from Chinese grocery stores in Toronto), and they’ve never been red. They taste all right, but I wouldn’t buy them myself. A little goes a long way.
Li hing mui is different than ordinary Chinese salted plums. It is much more intense, and has more of a licorice taste.
I adore the stuff, though it always cuts my tongue up.
Times of old? Wow, am I gettin’ up there in years.
You kids just sit down now, and I’ll tell you about the times of old, when Seinfeld ruled the airwaves and travelin’ for the dieter became possible…
According to Wikipedia, the generic Chinese preserved plum is called huàméi or “talk plum”. I guess some plums talk the talk and some walk the walk. 
I have a bag of it at work. A co-worker who has family in Hawaii but is not from there himself gave me some from his last visit. Unlike the other Hawaii goodies that make their way into the office, it sits untouched.
Mine, all mine. 