What Vietnamese food gifts to buy? You might wonder what you should bring back home for yourself or your beloved ones. That’s why we have gathered for you Vietnam’s best authentic delights for souvenirs to pack home.
Coffee (Cà Phê)
First, the number one choice is coffee without hesitation! Vietnam makes most of the world’s best Robusta coffee beans, so make sure you grab some from the motherland. You can find bags of roasted coffee sold just about anywhere here, from local markets, café houses to supermarkets, depending on the budget.
Most popular local coffee brands to seek for are Cafe Mai in Hanoi and Saigon, plus Trung Nguyen Coffee with its outlets scattered in most major cities. If you’re a fan of local multi-styled coffee (Iced Milk Coffee, Coconut Coffee and Egg Coffee), don’t forget to shop for the Vietnamese special filter (phin). This complete coffee set will serve perfectly as a gift as well.
Tea (Trà)
One obvious thing you can’t miss from the sidewalk vendors across regions would be the daily scenes of Vietnamese tea culture. Not just on special occasions, locals often enjoy tea breaks from work. But also tea talks with friends at night sitting on street stalls and take a sip of trà đá (iced tea).
Therefore, you can choose among green tea, plain black tea and scented tea (jasmine, lotus tea,…) as a gift. Green tea and plain black tea are locally popular for its pure quality of bitterness and aftertaste sweetness. Alternatively, lotus-scented tea is a noble version that represents Hanoi’s tea making art if you want to seek for the unique fragrance from West Lake. You can easily find tea bags at many markets, stores and supermarkets in any part of the country at around $5 per kilogram (might be higher for gourmet lotus tea).
Dried fruits
In case you regret not having enough of tropical Vietnam, dried fruits are special treats for you, and of course foodies back home! Add them to your “what to buy in Vietnam” list.
Salted or sweet dried fruits (Ô Mai)
Thinking of gourmet goodies? Don’t miss ô mai then! The main ingredients of this mouth-watering speciality of Hanoi can be dried apricot, plum, peach, tamarind, kumquat, liquorice,… They are seasoned with salt, sugar, ginger, lime, and chilli. Not to mention the harmonious texture of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy will blow you away in the very first bite. Hồng Lam and Tiến Thịnh are highly recommended brands if you look for boxes of ô mai with fine quality and decent packaging to bring home as gifts. The price ranges from around $2 – $8 depending on the sizes and flavours.
Fruit snacks (Hoa Quả Sấy)
Then, you can fulfil a thirst for exotic tropical fruits with crunchy packs of dried fruits. The most loved flavour for snack lovers is the crunchy dried jackfruit (mít sấy khô). You can also pick a mix option if you want to try a bit of everything. For instance, you can find guava, sweet potatoes, mango, etc. Vinamit is the brand name to hunt for without a doubt. The fruits snacks are up for grabs in either small grocery stores or big supermarkets at a totally reasonable price.
Green Bean Cake (Bánh Đậu Xanh)
Green bean cakes often appear in trays during ceremonies or festivals in Vietnamese families. The recipe of this pastry includes green beans, sugar, vegetable oil, and grapefruit flower. Other flavours are green tea, coconut, lotus seed and taro. The finished cake is often cut into small cubes and meticulously wrapped in foil.
Though the original from Hải Dương province is the best bite. You can find the cake for around $4 – $8 all over the country regardless of store size. A cup of tea would pair well with green bean cakes to balance out the sweet taste. If you look for a gift that brings the rustic essence of Vietnam, this is definitely the one.
Young Green Rice Cakes (Bánh Cốm)
Bánh cốm is another special treat from the historical capital of Hanoi. The sweet cake is made of young green rice flakes (cốm), which makes the natural green and stickiness of the outside skin. The filling is the ground green bean paste mixed with sugar, fresh shredded coconut meat and coated winter melon or lotus seeds. This cake is above all served as a must-have gift that grooms traditionally give to brides on their engagement day. So, make sure you shop from Nguyên Ninh Store on Hàng Than Street while touring the Old Quarter.
Coconut Candy (Kẹo Dừa)
Coconut candy is also an ideal gift for ones having a sweet tooth. It is not at all difficult to seek for this speciality of Bến Tre province in grocery stores across the country at a rather cheap price ($2 to $4). However, if you do visit the Mekong Delta, you can buy the original one which will be made in front of you. With the primary copra and maltose base, more flavours of green as pandan, caramel, cacao, jackfruit, and durian are now added. The seeming wrapper which is actually a thin rice paper and thus edible adds the perfect finishing touch to the Southern sweet delight.
Marou Chocolate
You heard it right! “The world’s most delicious chocolate” credited by New York Times magazine actually has its roots in Vietnam. Founded by two Frenchmen, Samuel Maruta and Vincent Mourou, the artisanal Marou Chocolate is renowned for being among the first bean-to-bar model in Asia and one of the few in the world.
From hand-picked beans to local cacao plantations in the Mekong Delta, those pure dark chocolate bars are made in on the outskirts of Saigon. And it comes in a variety of unique aromas. Marou now runs its chocolate shops also as a café and patisserie in some major cities of Vietnam.
Dried squid (Mực Khô)
Drinking beer in Vietnam isn’t as good as it is without dried grilled squids (mực khô nướng). Produced in Central Vietnam, dried squid is a popular street snack at night in major cities. It is made from fresh squids which are flattened, salted and dried under the sun for a few days. Despite the hard and dry look, the more you chew it, the sweeter it gets.
This snack tastes best as grilled on charcoal over medium heat to give off the charming smoky smell. You can enjoy the grilled squid by shredding into strips and dipping them into chilli sauce. This is certainly a must-have for Vietnamese’ beer stalls, and indeed an easy-to-get souvenir from any local market. Therefore, give it a try! Dried squid is certainly a must-have in your “what to buy in Vietnam” list for your own beer party at home.
Fish Sauce (Nước Mắm)
There is no grocery store or marketplace where you may fail to purchase a bottle of nuoc mam from $4. That is to say, Phú Quốc (housing over 100 fish sauce factories) is where you can find the fresh, high quality and authentic flavour whatsoever. Though careful packaging won’t enable leaking, unfortunately, bringing such liquids on the plane are normally prohibited. Thus, it is important that you check for luggage rules beforehand. Otherwise, you are likely to find the exported fish sauce for sale in your country.
Pepper (Hồ Tiêu)
To complete the list, one more delicacy you should not miss out in Phú Quốc is peppercorn. Indeed, Mother nature has granted Phú Quốc with the utterly ideal island climate, abundant sunshine, fresh ocean air, and rich soil. As a result, all these factors make natural farming and harvesting one of the world’s best quality pepper possible.
There are 4 kinds of pepper on offer (black pepper, white pepper, green pepper, and red pepper). All are famous for its heat, strong aroma and pungency, especially the red pepper. This authentic spice is nowhere near expensive, from just $3 per kilogram. So, during your ecotourism visit to local pepper farms, make sure to take the taste of Vietnam kitchen to your own one back home!
To sum up, we hope you have found what to buy in Vietnam for food gifts. So, be one step closer to bringing back home gorgeous souvenirs for your families and friends, as well as the precious experiences for your own by sharing with us your ideal private trip right away! 🙂
