The Maonan ethnic minority mainly lives in the mountainous regions in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwest China. Maonans have three meals a day and have rice and maize, etc. as their staple food. For example, the Maonan rice, i.e., cooked by mixing and boiling glutinous rice flour, bamboo shoots and other vegetables and seasonings, is the major food for Maonans in the summer.

Maonans are also good at making Mifengzi with rice or maize as a supplementary staple food, which is also good food in summer. Maonans are fond of sweet potatoes, which are one of the supplementary staple foods in autumn.

The Maonan area is relatively rich in vegetables all year round. Meat mainly comes from domestic fowl and livestock. Maonans are fond of dog meat and half-done dishes.

Maonans love quite a few sour foods including Three Maonan Sours, namely Nanxing, Wengwei and Shuofa.

Nanxing: Cut pork or beef into thin slices, blend evenly with raw salt powder, and preserve for 2 or 3 days; then steam with fragrant glutinous rice, cool it in a bamboo basket; knead the rice with the meat slices evenly, and seal them tightly in a jar. They are edible three months later.

Wengwei: In order to make sour food available at any time, each family has a special jar containing salty water, which is called Wengwei in the Maonan language, and can be used to preserve several kinds of vegetables.

Shuofa: Clean oncomelanias, fry them with lard till they are well cooked, pour them into a jar when hot, and seal the jar. The food, called Shuofa in the Maonan language, is ready to serve in three months.

Apart from the Three Sours, there are also sour chilli, sour tomato, sour onion and sour radish, etc.

Adult male Maonans are fond of wine. The majority of Maonans like to drink tea.