This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to our very opinionated editors’ favorite things to eat, drink, and buy.
At my elementary school, the Chinese-American kids all had their lunchbox treats of choice—White Rabbits, ginger chews, those shot-glass-size plastic cups of lychee jelly. Haw Flakes were mine. They’re thin, small, pink discs made from hawthorn fruit, which is sometimes used as a digestive aid in Chinese medicine. Think of them like a cross between a Fruit Roll-Up and a Necco wafer. They taste sort of like membrillo, the Spanish quince paste often served with cheese, and each thin disc packs a wallop of extremely craveable jammy-fruity-chewy-crumbliness.
The process of eating a roll of Haw Flakes is half the fun. They come in stacks of 15 or so, like petite rolls of quarters. (One legend has it that Bad Kids successfully used them as a substitute for quarters at the arcade.) Some of my peers opted to eat their Haw Flakes in multiples, popping several stuck-together discs into their mouths at one time. But I chose to peel each disc off from the stack one by one, watching my tower slowly dwindle.
My tastes have matured since my school lunch days. There is no longer room for processed cheese in my life, and look, Mom, I eat fruit by choice! But as I write this, I am eating a roll of Haw Flakes, spiraling the wrapper down the stack like a slow, sugary strip tease. They are the perfect mid-afternoon snack—the right amount of sweet, the right amount of chewy, fun to eat, and the ideal size to slip in your pocket for a walk to the park and back. I stand by them. If you like fruit leather, I think you’ll like them as much as I do—but if you don’t, you can always use them to feed the parking meter.
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