In this recurring series, I’ll analyze the origins of Pokémon designs and their allusions to Mediterranean culture from Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
Fidough
Fidough is a cute Fairy-type Pokémon inspired by a dog, particularly the dachshund. Its body looks to be made of dough with an egg yolk glaze that hasn’t been baked yet. Its name is a combination of “Fido”, a well-known name given to, and largely synonymous with, dogs, and “dough”. It is said that the name, meaning to trust and believe, was originally popularized by American President Abe Lincoln’s pet dog Fido.
Bread has long been a common staple in Spanish cuisine. Wheat has been cultivated for millennia in the Iberian peninsula. They were known to use beer foam as the yeast, resulting in light and fluffy baked goods such as the ensaïmada. As the Romans traveled west and conquered Spain. During this period, they introduced more techniques for baking and there were many examples of bread stamps being used for bakers to apply their personal signature to their craft.
This Pokémon is smooth and moist to the touch. Yeast in Fidough’s breath induces fermentation in the Pokémon’s vicinity.
The yeast in Fidough’s breath is useful for cooking, so this Pokémon has been protected by people since long ago.
Pokédex
If you’ve ever tried baking bread, you’ll see it is straightforward. You mix some flour, sugar, and other ingredients along with yeast. Yeast is a fungus that humans domesticated and bred specifically for a variety of foods including bread a long time ago. We don’t know exactly when humans discovered this, as yeast has been a part since the earliest days of Egyptian civilization.
Yeast will eat the sugar and produce gases which cause the bread the rise and create something light and tasty. This process is known as fermentation. Fidough is a Pokémon made of dough and is able to release bits of yeast from its breath. Perhaps in the Pokémon world, it was the origin of human’s discovery and use of yeast in the earliest day of breadmaking.
Dachsbun
When Fidough gets to 260 degrees… level 26, it evolves into Dachsbun. Its name is a combination of “Dachshund” and “Bun”.
At this point its body has gone through the oven and came out a golden brown. Baking is a chemical process in which the bread dough is transformed into something solid and edible. At an atomic level many processes occur. In particular bread undergoes the Maillard reaction in which the ingredients are merged together into something that has a pleasant taste and smell.
The pleasant aroma that emanates from this Pokémon’s body helps wheat grow, so Dachsbun has been treasured by farming villages.
The surface of this Pokémon’s skin hardens when exposed to intense heat, and its body has an appetizing aroma.
Pokédex
Wheat is one of the many cereals that humans have been cultivated since the beginning of civilization. Archaeologists have found evidence of breadmaking about fourteen thousand years ago from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East.
The domestication of dogs started tens of thousands of years earlier, where dogs and wolves genetically diverged. However, the specific breed called the dachshund came from Germany just a few hundred of years ago. Still, you could imagine a relative of Dachsbun in early farms helping humans cultivate agriculture.
There are many other kinds of cereals including barley, rye, and maize, all of which can be used to produce different kinds of breads.
After going through the oven, it comes out with a signature ability Well-Baked Body. Having already been through the Maillard reaction, it gains an immunity to Fire-type attacks. When struck by one, its defense stat also is boosted by two stages.
Conclusion
In addition to its cuteness, this Pokémon line’s inspiration of bread and bread making brings with it a lot of potential lore. If there are upcoming Pokémon games that take place in the past, perhaps in a Paris-inspired game, I want to see its relationship with farming communities and how it lent a hand to bakers. Until then, it will continue to whet our appetites.