[ QUOTE ]
When I was a kid in Arizona, we used to buy this Mexican candy called chamoy by the case. It is basically a dried apricot and plum paste. It is sweet but spicy as well.
Also same place and time frame were my favorite...saladitos which although were "candy" they were nothing but dried plums that were DRENCHED in salt. They were so salty my mouth waters thinking about them
[/ QUOTE ]
In Hawaii, these were called "cracked seed" or "li hing mui," and made usually by Chinese. The kind you picture are dried and sugared and salted plums. Sometimes people just called those "sweet and sour" and left it at that. There were all kinds of versions, some wet, some dry, some kinda in-between. Shredded mango was great, and really tangy. It was red for some reason. And dried lemon peel was really great. I miss the heck out of that stuff!
Best part was, when I would make a trip to Hawaii and come back with bags of the stuff, people would try it and usually spit it out, so I got to eat pretty much all of it. They'd be so scared off by the sour stuff they wouldn't come within a mile of the sweet.
An expensive treat, but well worth it. And so strongly flavored you eat them real slow, so in a way a lot of the stuff was effectively a bargain. A single lemon peel could last a half day or more.