Journey to catch them all — Episode (10)
Good food is humanity’s greatest achievement — no exaggeration. History proves it: the hunt for spices didn’t just transform cuisines, it reshaped the world. The British East India Company started with spices and ended up ruling India. Wild, right?
Food has power. A rough day? A great meal makes it better. A beach day? Ice cream elevates it. A lonely night? Coffee keeps you company. Traveling? New flavors await. Staying home? There’s always that hidden late-night spot. No Money? Imaginative struggle meals.
But truly great food is rare. Some dishes are timeless, some fade, some are just hype. Some take too much effort.
In a way, good food is like Shiny Pokémon. Let me explain.
Shiny Pokémon
Before diving into the analogy, let’s quickly go over what a Shiny Pokémon is.
A Shiny Pokémon is just like any other Pokémon, except it has a different color palette than the usual — and it’s incredibly rare. The base odds of finding one? A Whooping 1 in 4,096.
Most Shinnies have only a subtle color shift, like Fuecoco, where the change is just a slight gradient.
Others, like Charizard, go all out with a completely different color palette.
Food Hunt
To obtain a shiny there are multiple ways:
Stumbling upon one:
You’re casually playing when you suddenly spot it — or accidentally run into it — in the wild. This is the best possible way to find a Shiny! It’s a thrilling rush, completely unexpected, and sometimes, you weren’t even looking for it.
I compare this to accidentally discovering a fantastic restaurant — you’re out and about, not searching for anything special, just going through your day. It’s late, you order some food, and then — BAM! A hidden gem you never expected.
Sometimes, it’s a Shiny you won’t use often — just like that random restaurant you stumbled upon once. You might not even remember what you ordered, but it still leaves you with a nice memory.
One of my core memories is from my childhood, we were returning from visiting our countryside relatives back to Cairo. I was asleep on the couch, my brother was struggling to stay awake, It’s a 4 Hour drive. My dad accidentally took a wrong turn. Before we knew it, we were in a completely different governorate — lost and starving.
Desperate for food, we stopped at the first place we saw. To this day, I’m not even sure it was a real restaurant —it was probably more like a dining room of someone’s apartment, where a kind mom had simply cooked extra food and thought, why not sell it? I even remember seeing her playing with her kids in the kitchen.
The food? Absolutely incredible — warm, homey, and probably made straight from the heart.
Shiny hunting
Alternatively, you can actively search for your desired Pokémon, turning it into a true treasure hunt. You head to its spawn location, scanning the area carefully, eyes sharp, hoping that maybe — just maybe — you’ll spot it.
For me, this feels like the journey of finding the best restaurant for a specific dish. During the first year of my marriage, we made it a mission to try every burger joint around us, searching for our ultimate go-to spot. We’d rank them based on price, quality, and delivery time, treating it like a fun little competition.
The difference, though, is that in Pokémon, it’s all about the final result — did you catch the Shiny or not? In real life, I don’t even remember which restaurant won, but what stayed with me was the journey itself. I never wanted the restaurants to end because I truly loved the tradition.
Another example of always putting in the effort in cooking is my mum.
Ramadan is currently ongoing, and one of its biggest themes is bringing people together. The most important day is the first day — it’s when the shift in routine hits the hardest. Suddenly, everyone is fasting for 12 hours, feeling drained and adjusting to the change. By iftar, there’s this overwhelming desire to eat everything, and the pressure is all on the host to satisfy everyone’s cravings. It’s a challenge, but also a beautiful tradition of togetherness.
My mom prepared for the first day of Ramadan for at least two weeks, meticulously planning and executing every step to perfection. It’s like a masterful strategy, all leading up to the grand moment — the crown jewel of iftar, where everything comes together flawlessly.
Cold Hard cash
It’s not exactly the most legitimate way to get a Pokémon, but yes — you can buy one on eBay. My wife is guilty of that (sorry for ratting you out! 😛).
I remember her confidently saying she was going to Shiny hunt a Pawmi. And she did — for over six hours, tirelessly searching. Then, out of nowhere, I got an email confirming a purchase from eBay. Living in Egypt, I was completely surprised— What?!
Turns out, you can actually buy any Shiny you want online. But to be fair, she was sweet enough to get me my favorite Pokémon too — Dragonite!
Using Cold hard cash to get great food equivalent is either dining at a fancy restaurant or using premium ingredients to cook at home.
I’ve always considered myself a traditional man when it comes to food — I don’t care much about what I eat, the cheaper, the better. Ingredients? Nah, we’ll make do with anything!
But that mindset cracked a little when I accidentally ordered some (raw) ribeye steak. I had no idea how to cook it, so I just tossed it in the freezer and forgot about it. My wife, on the other hand, saw it as her chance to shine.
And shine she did. That steak? Hands down, the best I’ve ever tasted in my life. In fact, we just had one two days ago.
You’re probably wondering, Why no picture? Well, I’ll tell you why — because I devoured that thing in five seconds flat. No time for photos, only pure, unfiltered enjoyment.
Repeated encounters
There are certain Pokémon that you only encounter once during your gameplay — usually, the game builds up to them throughout its story. It’s the climax, the big moment where you finally face the legendary Pokémon, your one chance to catch it and wrap up the adventure.
… Buuuuuuuuuut then you see it’s not Shiny.
Oh well — time to restart the encounter. Again. And again. Until it finally is.
I truly admire the dedication of people who do this — it’s a chance to get the rarest of the rare Shinnies. But for me? It completely ruins the flow of the game.
My gameplay example of this was Articuno in Pokemon let’s GO, it was an accidental discovery, we were playing in coop and we took some wrong turns in a cave. All of the sudden it was articuno, we were like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT, it was a genuine shock, and we rushed to catch it with our low HP Pokémon, I could never imagine myself just save (and reset) until it’s shiny.
Another kind of repeated encounters that I could never do myself — but deeply respect — is what my brother did with Kahk for Eid.
Kahk is a traditional dessert eaten on the first day of Eid, right after the Eid prayer. It’s a big part of the celebration but making it at home has become a dying art — most people just buy it from stores.
A few years ago, my brother and my mom decided to bring back the tradition and started making it themselves. At first, it was okay — nothing special. But he kept at it, year after year, perfecting the process.
And now? God damn, he became the king of Kahk.
Most recent shiny and Updates
During my writing of this episode, I wanted to catch a new shiny just to serve as an outro and luckily, I did.
Regarding the Dex journey, like we said last time, we are in the last mile, so additions will be slow, There is a single new addition this episode which is Ledian
However, not all hope is lost! I’m wrapping up Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl (BDSP), which should introduce a bunch of Legendaries and unlock the National Dex. That means I’ll be able to complete the first 490+ Pokémon much faster — something we definitely need a lot of!
Thanks for your time and see you next episode.
