The Botanfry

Inspired by Thai cuisine and my mom, I recreated a rosette tool that creates a crunchy, slightly sweet and delicious Thai lotus flower cookie, or kanom dok jok.

I replaced the original brass metal with stainless steel for safe cooking and added a wooden handle for easier grip.

This process taught me how to ideate, plan, make, and fail quickly. 

The Backstory

Hmong food & desserts, courtesy of @c.hercreations (from left to right: vermicelli noodles, khao poon, Hmong sausage with boiled chicken and purple sticky rice, boiled pork belly with greens, boiled chicken and bamboo stir fry, and nab vam)

Hmong cuisine is deeply rooted in Southeast Asian flavors, traditions, and community. Growing up, food was a big part of my Hmong identity. I watched my mom, aunties, and grandmas prepare meals for weddings, hu plig khi tes (blessing ceremonies), funerals, and gatherings that often fed hundreds of people.

One of my favorite memories was helping my mom make flower cookies: a delicate, crispy treat made from rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, and bright food coloring. After work, my mom would prepare the colorful batter while my four siblings and I set up our makeshift assembly line. We'd spend hours frying, shaping, and stacking over 500 cookies into coolers for community events.

Despite the slightly burned hands and long hours, we kept going because we saw how hard our mom worked. Looking back, those moments were more than just making cookies. They were about family, preserving our culture, and sharing a labor of love.

The Stanford University School of Engineering course:

ME 203 - Design and Manufacturing

This class was a foundation of the Product Design track. Students were asked to:

  1. Discover a product with meaning to them;

  2. Develop a point of view which motivates a redesign of that product;

  3. Manufacture a series of models, multiple candidates (including sketches, product use stories, rapid prototypes, CAD documents, manufacturing test models);

  4. Finally, have a customer ready prototype.

Ideation

I thought a lot about what has meaning to me. Here were some of them:

  1. Xauv Case - to protect the traditional Hmong necklace made of cheaper mixed-alloy metals.

  2. Botanfry - (the selected project) a rosette tool.

  3. Loc-Lite - combination on a bike light

  4. Bike Ease-ly - a bike case for an easel.

  5. Xauv-Modern (So-Modern) - a take on creating a traditional Hmong necklace using class skills. Perhaps aluminum or steel.

  6. Phloto - a floating photo frame.

  7. PanVex - a pan to make steamed rolls.

  8. TBA Lamp - a lamp design, inspired by my passion for FIRST Robotics.

  9. Weaved throne - a modern take on Hmong woven stools.

  10. Coffee Catcher Mug - a mug that will catch drips and spills.

The final pick!
Protoyping

First, I sketched and drafted the rosette form using Solidworks, a computer-aided design (CAD) program. I then laser cut scrap material and stacked each stencil to mock the height of the real tool.

I first used brass to prototype, per the real product on market. Brass was cheap and easy to work with. I cut and molded thin sheets of brass, then brazed the joints with silver.

After a successful trial with brass, I upgraded to stainless steel because it is food safe.

I noticed a few things when cooking this with my mom. She liked when the petals were a bit wider in thickness since she used the bottom of a cup to mold a fresh, hot, and oily cookie flower. I decided to go with a thicker dimension of stainless steel.

The Process

Milling

I first created a ‘male’ and ‘female’ piece to form the curved petals using a milling machine.

Brazing

Because stainless steel cannot be welded, I used silver to ‘glue’ the pieces together.

Finishing

I filed off any excess silver before attaching the metal stem and wooden handle.

Test

I washed the Botanfry and finally got to test its capabilities in my dorm’s communal kitchen. I readied the batter, a cup, and the hot pot of oil. It felt like I was back home again!

Pictured: GIF file of me dipping the Botanfry in green batter and into hot oil.

Reflecting/Lessons Learned

The best lesson I received, after Dave Beach’s lectures. Because Stanford runs on a quarter system (10-week quarters), I had less than 5 weeks to draft, prototype, and make 1 functional Botanfry.

1

Fail fast.

Steel turned out to be more expensive than I had anticipated, on top of expediting it by air fare. Had I initially planned and sourced material better, I would have been able to make at least 1 more

2

Budget better.

Learn how to use a portable camp stove.

3

At the annual ME 203 student showcase, I had to rent out a portable stove on campus so I could cook on site. I knew how to use 50-pound propane, but not a tiny one. Useful for future camping.

If I had just 1 more week without worrying about 2-3 other classes (and an unlimited budget), I would have made 10 more easily. I surprised my mom with it for her birthday, and she wishes I had made more. To this day, my mom prefers to use The Botanfry over her other existing 3 tools!

4

Make 2 more!