Friday, March 29, 2024
FOOD&DRINK

What are some popular Chuseok Thanksgiving gifts?

Chuseok Thanksgiving Gifts are not as decadent as they once were thanks to the Kim Young Ran law. But it’s still OK to splash out on friends and family. Of course MONEY is the most popular gift. Who doesn’t like money? But the shops are also full of various gift sets. So let’s take a look at some practical and common presents in the categories of food, health, and household products. 

Chuseok Thanksgiving Gifts: TINNED FOOD

SPAM anyone? Spam has to be at the top of the list of tinned food gift sets from company employers to employees.

I wouldn’t consider Spam to be a luxury product and was quite taken aback to see all the office workers carrying briefcases of Spam on the subway in the festive season! But Spam gained a good reputation and became a luxury item during the Korean war. And it’s a convenient meat to have in the cupboard. A couple of slices of fried Spam can perk up a pot of kimchi stew. 

But although Spam is the signature tinned product at Chuseok, tins of tuna sets are hot on Spam’s heels. Or combos of Spam/tuna and oil – olive oil, canola oil, or sesame oil.

spam as a Chuseok thanksgiving gift set

Chuseok Thanksgiving Gifts: FRUIT

Thanks to the exorbitant price of Korean fruit, high quality domestic Asian pears, semi dried persimmon, melons, and even apples, are at the top of the fruit gift set list. Don’t ask me how quality is decided, but it often seems like the bigger the better. Each fruit also has to be a perfect shape and they must all be the same size.

Meanwhile, local marts sell reasonably priced box sets of fruit. But anything imperfect is unacceptable and certainly can’t go on the ceremonial table. Domestically grown fruit tends to be far more expensive than gift sets of imported fruit such as kiwi from New Zealand or mango from the Philippines. 

I love semi dried persimmon. They are really tasty. (middle pic below)

Korean fruit makes luxury gift sets

see more from dramasrok about life in Korea on Facebook Pinterest and Instagram 

Chuseok Thanksgiving Gifts: SEAFOOD

I am also shocked at the price of dried fish sets. Semi dried yellow corvina fish is one of the signature gifts and it has a massive price range too depending on the quality.

Abalone is another luxury product delivered straight from the southern shores of Wando in ice packed containers. Abalone can be sliced and eaten raw with a red chilli sauce dip or cooked in rice porridge.

I would be happy with a set of seaweed, (kim) and anchovy (myeolchi) for making side dishes and soup stock.

chuseok thanksgiving gifts of seafood

see more from dramasrok about life in Korea on Facebook Pinterest and Instagram 

Chuseok Thanksgiving Gifts: MEAT

I think every other restaurant in Seoul these days is a bbq meat restaurant. I very rarely meet a vegetarian so I suppose most people would be pleased to get some high quality Korean beef as a gift. It’s not cheap. Here’s a pic of the Andong beef set advertised on the interpark online shopping website.

There’s a lot of effort here to make raw meat look appetising… Is it working?

chuseok beef

Chuseok Thanksgiving Gifts: HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS

Some companies give their office workers a choice when it comes to their Chuseok present. So would you prefer Spam or shampoo?

If you’re asking me, I’ll take the shampoo.  All sorts of gift sets involving various household products area available. I like this idea. It’s practical. I mean, who doesn’t need toothpaste?

chuseok gifts

Of all the shampoo and body wash sets I looked at, I really liked the black and white design of the Kerasys body wash and shampoo set. (below)

The simple black hangul characters  on a white background look stylish and clean and they are different from the usual colourful shampoo containers. I haven’t actually tried these products myself though. I just like the look of them! The set includes body wash, shampoo, soap, and a scrubbing flannel (for removing dead skin….) And at under 10,000 won, it’s cheap too.

chuseok gift

see more from dramasrok about life in Korea on Facebook Pinterest and Instagram 

Chuseok Thanksgiving gifts: HEALTH

And finally, health products are definitely popular to give to relations, especially elders who probably would not fork out on these products for themselves. Who wouldn’t be delighted with an expensive imported box of vitamins or some Korean ginseng?

chuseok ginseng

 

related posts:

Chuseok food

Things to do in Autumn in Korea

Leave a Reply