Salt-and-Sugar Pickled Crispy Green Plums

Why people make this

Fresh green plums arrive at markets in spring — a fleeting seasonal ingredient that Cantonese home cooks seize to pickle a jar of crispy plums. These pale-green, snappy morsels are a beloved traditional snack: sweet on the outside with a clean, fruity bite when made well. Nourilo shares his experience with characteristic candor — including his shortcut that led to bitterness inside the plums — because the lesson is genuinely useful: the salting-and-kneading step is the heart of the whole process, and patience there makes all the difference.