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Crack seed is a Hawaiian snack food with Chinese origins, heavily influenced by Asian cuisine. The term refers to the way the snacks are prepared, and they were born from the practical need to preserve fruit. The taste can be unexpected to those unfamiliar with it, but traditional crack seed shops offer a unique experience for adventurous taste buds.
Crack seed is a family of Hawaiian snack foods that originated in China. Much of Hawaiian food has been heavily influenced by Asian cuisine and flavors, and the taste of these snacks are much closer to those of China than anything made in the United States. Many Hawaiians are very fond of crack seeds and shopping at stores that sell and assortment of varieties, while Continents are sometimes perplexed by the array of choices in such a store.
The term “crack seed” refers to the way the snacks are prepared. It was traditionally made by keeping the fruit intact with its seed and cracking it open to expose the seed. Not all snacks today include the seed, but the name stuck. Other people use the Chinese terms li hing mui or vede mui to refer to this food, and Hawaiians sometimes refer to “li hing” as a specific flavor.
These snacks were born from the very practical need to preserve fruit so that it could be used all year round. The Chinese liked to store fruits such as salted plums so they could be carried on long journeys, and they acquired a taste for the heavily salty and mildly sweet foods they brought with them to Hawaii. Along the way, the flavors have been expanded, and today you can find sweet crack seeds, chocolate-covered snacks, and snacks infused with licorice, lemon, and other flavors.
People who weren’t raised eating snack foods of Asian origin may have a hard time liking crack seeds. The fruit in traditional snacks is wilted and leathery, unlike the plump and colorful dried fruit preserved with sulfides on the mainland. It can also be hard, intensely salty, or strongly acidic, and typically has a very strong taste that can be unexpected to people unfamiliar with it.
Some shops sell a mix of flavours, some tailored for people with more sensitive taste buds. Tourist shops, for example, tend to carry more conventional dried fruit, rather than stocking things like salt-preserved prunes. For people with adventurous taste buds, a visit to a traditional crack seed shop can be an experience. Many of the same foods sold there can also be found in Chinese grocery stores around the world, from salt-preserved plums to dried sweet lychees.
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