Feeding the imagination Share CLOSE A series of picture books gives children and adults a taste of traditional culture by exploring the history and origin of popular Chinese dishes in a new and contemporary way, Mei Jia reports. As Emeril Lagasse, the US celebrity chef, once noted: "To really get to know a place and its people, you've got to eat the food." Food serves as a key to every culture and, in China, glutinous rice paste, moon cake, spring roll, eight-treasured rice congee, Yangzhou-styled fried rice and dried persimmon are delicacies commonly seen on dinner tables across the country. To Sichuan Fine Arts Institute associate professor Mou Aili, they are her inspiration for a series of picture books that she hopes will "pass Chinese culture and the wisdom it involves on to future generations".