Chestnuts

The roasted chestnuts were so popular that the Qian's opened a branch to be run by their only daughter and son-in-law.

The bright color and delicious smell of roasted chestnuts made them a popular snack for the crowds attending the nearby cinemas. On colder days, the Qian's can sell more than 100 kilograms of chestnuts.

After many decades, Xinchangfa has become a brand synonymous with Shanghai's best sweet roasted chestnuts.

The stores' success is mostly attributed to the source of chestnuts, Qianxi in Hebei province, where the nation's best chestnuts are grown.

Each chestnut is carefully handpicked, and bad, cracked, blackened and rotten ones are thrown away. All the good ones are classified, and each category has a similar size and weight.

The Xinchangfa chef will roast chestnuts with sand, sugar and tea oil. Processed under a special recipe, the fired chestnuts taste sweet, soft and glutinous.

In 1956, the sweet roast chestnut expert merged with another local grocery store, and the business was restructured into a State-owned company. But the store's chestnuts are still as popular as before.

"Because people have to line up for a long time to buy the chestnuts, we require that one person can buy no more than 1 kilogram each time," says Li Shiliang, deputy general manager of the Shanghai Xinchangfa Chestnut Food Co Ltd.