01 / Context

This isn't a cookbook. It's a memory, told through the kitchen.

When I was around seven, my family lived in a single hotel room in Cambodia. My uncle owned the hotel and gave us a room to stay in. We had almost nothing back then. Most mornings, my mom made me pancakes, because they were cheap and very filling.

This website is about the six things she used to make them. Each one has four parts: an image, a sound, a description of how it feels to hold, and a short story about it.

The point is that no part needs one specific sense to work. If you can't see the image, the text describes it. If you can't hear the sound, there is a transcript. You can also have any section read out loud. Everything is built so you can use it however you need to.

I added a few options to make it easier to use. You can turn on high contrast mode or make the text bigger if that helps you read. The whole site works with just a keyboard (tab & enter), so you don't need a mouse to get around. There is also background music you can turn on or off on the top right.

02 / Recipe

Pancakes, in six steps.

Total 06

i. The Ceramic Bowl Stoneware → ii. The Whisk Steel Wire → iii. The Wooden Spoon Beechwood → iv. The Cast Iron Pan Iron → v. The Spatula Silicone, Steel → vi. The Tea Towel Cotton →
i

Step One / Mix the Dry Ingredients

The Ceramic Bowl.

Glazed Porcelain · Smooth · Plain White

[01] See

A small round white ceramic bowl on a marble kitchen counter, holding a mound of plain white flour. A little flour is dusted on the counter beside it. Behind it, a bright kitchen with a window.

A small white bowl sits on the counter with a pile of plain flour in it. The glaze is smooth and even.

[02] Hear

The sound of something dry like breadcrumbs or grains of sand falling into a bowl.

[03] Touch

Heavier than it looks. Cold from sitting out on the bench. The glaze is smooth everywhere, inside and out, and gets a bit slippery when your hands are wet. The rim is one even curve with no rough spots. The base is a flat ring that grips the counter when you stir.

[04] Story

My mom learned to make pancakes from her grandma, who lived in the city. My mom moved out to the countryside to live with my dad, but she still remembered everything her grandma taught her. She never used a book or measured anything.

This bowl is the one I remember most. She used it every single morning to make me pancakes and I still remember it to this day.

ii

Step Two / Beat the Egg into the Milk

The Whisk.

Stainless Steel Wire · Plastic Handle

[01] See

A stainless steel balloon whisk lying on its side on a marble counter, black handle pointing right. Beside it stands a short clear glass of milk. A little flour and a small spill are on the counter.

The whisk lies on its side on the counter. The black handle points right and the wire loops spread out to the left.

[02] Hear

A whisk whisking in a bowl with liquid in it. You can hear a tiny bit of the liquid splashing and the whisk hitting the side of the bowl as it goes.

[03] Touch

Light. Almost nothing in your hand. The handle is plastic with ridges for grip, and warm from being held. The wires are springier than you'd expect. Push them against the counter and they bend, then snap back. Run a finger down one wire and it's thin and smooth, with a tiny rounded knob at the end.

[04] Story

The whisk is the only part my mom let me help with. I didn't know how to measure, and flipping the pancakes on the cast iron pan was too dangerous, so I would have just gotten in her way. Mixing was the one thing that was safe. I never mixed it in fully though. When I handed the bowl back to her, she would mix it a bit more to make sure everything was dissolved and properly combined.

iii

Step Three / Stir Wet into Dry

The Wooden Spoon.

Beechwood · Hand-Worn · Stained

[01] See

A wooden spoon resting across the top of a white bowl. The pale wooden handle stretches to the left, the head darker and coated in pale batter that drips over the edge. A window with houses behind.

The wooden spoon rests across the top of the bowl. The handle is pale and plain. The head is darker and covered in batter that drips slowly off the edge.

[02] Hear

A wooden spoon mixing in the bowl. It makes a heavy, thumping sound as it hits the ceramic, over and over in quick succession.

[03] Touch

Warmer than the ceramic or the metal ones. The handle is smooth from years of hands wrapped around it, almost polished. No sharp edges anywhere. It weighs almost nothing but still feels solid. The head is rougher where heat and batter have worn the finish away.

[04] Story

The wooden spoon is used in every single meal. It doesn't matter if it's soup, salad, or anything else, the wooden spoon is always there. Scooping the batter, pouring the batter, stirring something on the stove. Whatever my mom was cooking, she reached for the wooden spoon.

It's the one thing that shows up in every meal, no matter what she was making.

iv

Step Four / Heat, Pour, Wait

The Cast Iron Pan.

Cast Iron · Seasoned · Heavy

[01] See

A black cast iron pan on a marble counter with one round pour of pale pancake batter setting in the middle. The pan's surface is dark and well used. A long handle points to the right.

The pan sits on the counter with one round of batter poured into the middle, just starting to set. The iron is black and a bit uneven from use. The handle is long and solid.

[02] Hear

The pancake hits the pan and sizzles. It's one continuous sizzle that slowly quiets down.

[03] Touch

It's a bit heavy. The handle is solid iron with nothing on it, so on a hot stove it gets too hot to grab bare-handed. When it's cold the cooking surface feels faintly rough, like very smooth stone. Cold to start, warm after a minute, then hot enough to burn you.

[04] Story

The pan looked really old. It's like that one wok or pan every Asian family has, the kind that's been used for decades. The pan is used in basically every single meal, except for when it's soup or anything with a lot of liquid. Just like the wooden spoon, it's always there.

It's the kind of pan that's been around for decades and gets used for almost everything.

v

Step Five / Flip When It Bubbles

The Spatula.

Moulded Silicone · One Piece · Soft Beige

[01] See

A beige silicone spatula lying flat on a marble counter, the soft spoon-shaped head to the left and the long handle to the right. A few crumbs are scattered nearby.

The spatula lies flat on the counter. It is one piece of smooth beige silicone, with a soft spoon-shaped head at one end and a long thin handle.

[02] Hear

The spatula goes under the pancake and scrapes it off the pan. Then a short pause. Then the pancake flips, and the wet side hits the pan and starts to sizzle again.

[03] Touch

The handle is hard. The head is soft, but not too soft. You can bend it if you use a bit of force, but it's still firm enough to pick things up and flip them.

[04] Story

At first my mom used the wooden spoon to flip the pancakes. After a while she bought a spatula and used that instead. This is probably the newest item out of everything here.

vi

Step Six / Wipe the Bench, Done

The Tea Towel.

Linen Weave · Blue Stripe · Folded

[01] See

A folded linen tea towel on a marble counter. Natural oatmeal colour with thin blue check stripes, and a small fabric label sewn into one edge.

The tea towel is folded into a neat rectangle on the counter. It is a natural oatmeal colour with thin blue stripes that cross into a check. A small pale label is stitched into one edge.

[02] Hear

The tea towel rubbing back and forth across the bench.

[03] Touch

It's a bit rough from years of use. You'd expect it to feel soft and smooth, but it's not. The color is warm and turning yellow from being used. The folded edges still hold their shape.

[04] Story

My mom used the tea towel to clean the kitchen, and also to grab the cast iron pan handle since it's too hot to hold. Because of that, some parts of it are burnt and some parts aren't.

Then my dad's business took off and my mom went to help him run it. The mornings stopped. They didn't stop because things got worse. They stopped because things got better.

That's the recipe.
That's the morning.

My dad started his business with two hundred dollars. My mom gave everything she had to make it work. It turned into more than any of us expected. We don't live in that one room anymore and I'm grateful for that.

But I never got the mornings back. So I made this instead. Not the food, just everything around it. The sounds, the weight of each thing, and the small room that smelled like pancakes every morning.

Sometimes I just want to go back to when I was a kid. Even though we had nothing, it was still fun, and I never had to stress about anything.

The Details

03 / Credits

About

I made this for my Intersensory Digital Publishing class at RMIT. It's about my mom's pancakes and the things she used to make them. I built the site myself and used some components from 21st.dev. I tried to make it work for as many people as possible, no matter how they read it.

Typography

Fraunces by Undercase Type · Inter Tight by Rasmus Andersson · JetBrains Mono. All served by Google Fonts.

Components and Inspiration

Some of the interface ideas were adapted from open-source components on 21st.dev, and the overall look took inspiration from websites featured on Awwwards.

21st.dev (2026) 21st.dev: a registry of React UI components, accessed 22 May 2026. 21st.dev

Awwwards (2026) Awwwards: website design awards and inspiration, accessed 22 May 2026. awwwards.com

Access Features

  • Read-aloud button on every section using browser speech
  • High contrast mode toggle
  • Larger text toggle
  • Alt text on every image
  • Written transcripts for every sound
  • Touch descriptions for what images cannot show
  • Full keyboard navigation with visible focus
  • Semantic HTML with ARIA labels and landmarks
  • Skip-to-content link
  • Optional background sound, off by default

Research

Classen C (2012) The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch, University of Illinois Press, Urbana.

Kleege G (2018) More Than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art, Oxford University Press, New York.

Snyder J (2014) The Visual Made Verbal, American Council of the Blind, Arlington.

W3C (2018) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, accessed 19 May 2026. w3.org/TR/WCAG21

AI Attribution

Anthropic (2026) Claude [Large language model], accessed 19 May 2026. claude.ai

Google (2026) Gemini [Generative AI image tool], accessed 22 May 2026. gemini.google.com

I used AI tools on this project. Claude helped me with building the website, and when I ran into problems. Every decision and design choice was made by me. I chose the concept, the layout, the look, and what inspiration to take. I took the photographs myself and used Gemini to adjust their lighting and background. The stories, the recipe, the choice of utensils, and all the writing are mine. Everything here was built and decided by me.