Vietnamese souvenirs for mom friends. What to buy and what not to buy

Xin chào! We are Papa-san, a Japanese husband living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Mama-san, his Vietnamese wife! On this blog, we share information about moving to and living in Vietnam, as well as travel information from all over the country. If you find an article that catches your interest, please follow us first ♪ Golden Week is coming up soon — have you already decided your plans for the holidays? Lately, with the weak yen and high oil prices on top of it, it seems that travelers from Europe and the US are switching their destinations to Southeast Asia. Thanks to that, sales at Vietnam's airport duty-free shops are said to be booming. So this time, we'd like to answer a question from travelers visiting Vietnam: "Which souvenir should I give to my mom friends? When it comes to "mom friends," the level of closeness varies from person to person — some are friends from your school days, others are work-related acquaintances, and still others are neighbors in your apartment building. So you'll want to choose your souvenirs carefully, to avoid being thought of as "that stingy person~" or "she has no taste~". For a mom friend who seems likely to spread strange rumors, here's the pick: Marou's premium chocolates

Some mom friends might think, "If you buy something I don't like, weird rumors might spread whether they're true or not." For moms like that, rather than something unusual or distinctly Vietnamese, plain chocolate is recommended. If it's not just ordinary chocolate but a high-end brand of chocolate, even those mom friends shouldn't have any complaints.   Marou is such a famous premium chocolate brand that practically everyone in Vietnam knows it, so you really can't go wrong no matter which one you buy. They have flagship cafés centered around the tourist areas of Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City, so you can even try samples there. ▶Marou Official Website For a mom friend who's above you: YUGOC's three-country-flavor cashew nuts

For gifts to someone senior to you—like an older mom friend or your boss's wife at work—I recommend a slightly stylish Vietnamese souvenir. Personally, I often go and buy YUGOC's cashew nuts. Cashew nuts themselves can be bought anywhere in Vietnam, but these are YUGOC's original product, and I haven't seen them anywhere else.   These are unusual nuts that let you enjoy the flavors of three Asian countries: "Thailand's tom yum kung, Vietnam's coffee, and Japan's wasabi." The packaging is stylish too, and personally, I'd especially recommend the tom yum kung nuts. YUGOC only has a directly-run store in Ho Chi Minh City, but you can also buy them at souvenir shops. Please check the website for more details. ▶YUGOC Official Website      This is for a mom friend you only see when picking up and dropping off your kids: Banchan.

This is a snack called Banh Chan from YUGOC. You might know Banh Chan Nung or Banh Chan Chon that you can buy at street stalls, but Banh Chan itself refers to rice paper. This one is a snack made by mixing spices into rice paper and frying it. It's a street food classic. There are a lot of "mom friends" you only see briefly when dropping off or picking up your kids at daycare or kindergarten, or occasionally run into at the park, aren't there?If you give someone something a bit pricey, they end up feeling embarrassed — but if it looks cheap, deep down they might just smile wryly to themselves... honestly, it's kind of a hassle, isn't it. This one from YUGOC can be bought for just a few hundred yen, and the box is stylish and simple too. Since it also tastes like a fun little snack, it's the No. 1 easiest gift to give. For mom friends you're close with, this is the one: instant coffee

Even if you say you're close, with mom friends you might only get together for tea once or twice a year in your personal life. For someone like that, Vietnamese instant coffee makes a great gift. You can find all sorts of brands at supermarkets or souvenir shops. 2-in-1 can be a bit hard to drink, so I'd recommend the 3-in-1 (coffee, sugar, and milk) instead.   The G7 in the picture is probably the most popular brand, but since you can even find it on Amazon Japan, why not buy something from a maker that's only available in Vietnam while you're at it? This way you can get it for just a few hundred yen, and even if the person you give it to happens to hate coffee and ends up throwing it away, you won't feel guilty about it, right? Actually, there are also Vietnam travel souvenirs you should never give to a mom friend.

You know, it happens sometimes. People who, just because Vietnamese food was delicious, bring back Vietnamese seasonings like nuoc mam or nuoc tuong as souvenirs. Honestly, that puts the recipient in quite a bind. Because you really don't know how to use them. Actually, I recently received a sweet sauce as a Bali souvenir from a friend, and got saffron from an Indian friend, but I never ended up using either of them, not even once... Locally-rooted products you can buy at the supermarket

Many travelers like to buy food and other items as souvenirs at supermarkets and shopping centers in Vietnam, don't they? The great appeal is being able to buy authentic Vietnamese products cheaply, but they're not really suitable as souvenirs for your mom friends, are they?   I don't know why, but no matter how much sweets sold at the supermarket try to look high-class, you can just tell from the vibe of the packaging that "oh, this is the kind of thing sold at a supermarket." Even if the wife doesn't notice, sometimes the husband does, so I guess supermarket items are a bit of a no-go (though if it's something sold at the souvenir corner for foreign tourists inside the supermarket, that's totally fine!).     You need to be careful with snacks at Vietnamese supermarkets too When you spot a snack at a Vietnamese supermarket and think "this packaging is so stylish!", the first thing you should check is "is this actually a Vietnamese snack?" Supermarket snack shelves are lined with plenty of foreign snacks from Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, the US, and more, so there's a high chance that stylish-looking packaging actually belongs to an imported foreign product.   Even if you go out of your way to give it as a gift, if someone says "Wait, this says 'Meiji' on it. Where did you even go?" you'd have no way to save face. In summary: souvenirs for mom friends really do require a surprising amount of care, don't they~ Honestly, relationships with mom friends can be a bit delicate, and there are parts even you yourself can't quite figure out.When you're stuck on what travel souvenir to get, just hand out the souvenirs introduced here and you should be fine for now!