Let’s make it clear: ô mai |oh mai| is not xí muội |xi mui| (huamei), even if Wikipedia says so. The former is a cooked mixture of cut-up fruits, ginger, licorice and spices, the latter is a whole plum dried and salted.
Now that’s settled, I got a bunch of ô mai from Vua Khô Bò & Ô Mai a while ago, all homemade or so the lady told. Guava, rose buds, sấu (no English name, it seems), mango, kumquat, cóc (golden apple), tamarind, and 5-fruit combo, 2 balls each at $6.99 per half pound. Sweet, spicy, chunky, velvety, gingery, tart, salty, it’s all there.
The downside: they all have the same wrapper, so except for the guava one which is extra chunky, I can’t tell which is which if my life depended on it.
And here’s some xí muội. Look more like rocks then edibles, doesn’t it? Americans like ’em not, but I find them lip-smacking good, one tiny nibble at a time.
Address: Vua Khô Bò & Ô Mai
2549 S King Rd #A-B
San Jose, CA 95121
(408) 531-8845
Also from here, also fruitilicious: banana tootsie roll
xi muoi is one of my favorites. i pop the whole thing in my mouth >.< you should also try o liu if you enjoy xi muoi.
what is o liu? are they sold with xi muoi and those beef jerkies too? you don’t mean olive, right? My friend popped a whole xi muoi in his mouth once, and he felt that he shriveled up like a xi muoi itself 😛 I like the salty kind, and it’s so salty I can only nibble bit by bit 😛