Guizhou-born designer and co-owner of the experimental Guizhou-inspired restaurant Maolago, DIAO Wei facilitates a workshop on crafting white sour stock (baisuan), a traditional fermented recipe of the Miao ethnic group in southwest China. Baisuan is created by allowing the starchy water from boiled rice to ferment and turn sour over several days. Workshop participants will make baisuan together with members of the Maolago team, then taste a readymade red sour stock (hongsuan), another ferment made with semi-wild grown mountain tomatoes from Guizhou.  The workshop will explore how these practices preserve cultural identity and connect the community through food, offering participants hands-on experience in fermentation techniques and insights into the significance of “sourness” in Guizhou culinary culture.

Workshop support generously provided by Maolago.

Language: Chinese.

Free and open to the public. 

Space is limited. Registration is required. To register, please click on the “Register” button at the top of this page or scan the QR code below. 


In conjunction with Sour Things, an exhibition by Mirna Bamieh.

The exhibition Sour Things and related events are presented as the first season of the ICA's artistic research program Lightless Fires (2024–26), exploring fermentation as a figure and technique of collective memory, autonomous archiving, and writing history.