QUESTION, how do Inkfish have milk/milk flavoured things if there are no mammals to produce it? And if they synthesized the milk, how would they know that its nutritional? Or that it can be made into cheese/yogurt?
Even if theyre using oats or nuts to make milk substitues, i dont think those can be used to make other dairy products right? Idk im not a biologist
for this ask i thought about just linking the wikipedia pages for plant milk and vegan cheese or the video where i touch on this topic and leaving it at that, but i thought that would come off as too passive aggressive and i dont like that
with how often i see this question floating around still i think its worth going into a bit more so i can just link this post in case anyone ever asks again.
“One thing we know about the world of Splatoon is that mammals are basically gone,” said Nogami, seated across from me in a small room behind Nintendo’s booth. “So they don’t eat beef or pork or the meat of mammals.” With Splatoon 2 playing on a screen, Nogami walked his Inkling over to a corner in Inkopolis square where a bright ad played for cereal. A crab chowed down on a bowl of milky carbs. “There’s no mammals, so whatever is being poured over the cereal might not be milk,” Nogami laughed.
Hm. Okay. So what do Inklings eat? “Veggies, birds, fish,” said Nogami. “Some bread.”
-- What do Squid Kids Eat? Splatoon’s Producer Explains
So the facts are:
-Mammals are basically gone (excluding Judds/Grizz)
-They drink milk that isn't real milk
-There are crops cultivated in the Inkling world
The obvious conclusion is that they use plant-based substitutes.
there are a few questions that could spawn from this....
Q1: a bunch of stuff went extinct in the splatoon world. what kind of dairy substitutes could they use exactly?
A: canonically, inklings have a variety of rice and soy-based products. a few types of nuts are confirmed to exist. they eat coconuts too. you can make milk out of all of these, as well as other dairy products like cheese and yogurt.
They're not limited to plants either...
i swear everyone ive shown the left image goes like EWWW THEY EAT INK but like. squid ink is edible in real life. i dont get why this is weird?? nobody said ewww at the squiddymelon which i imagine would absorb ink to change colors like that. the concept that inklings figured out Ink-based dairy products is fucking awesome. anyways
Q2: how did they figure this out?
A: I think the answer can be found by looking into the history of plant milks in our world. Humans have been making and consuming plant based milks like soy and almond milk for centuries. the consumption of coconut milk goes back millennia. plant based cheeses are not as old, but still go back a hundred or so years. a lot of other dairy substitutes emerged in the past 50 years. Inklings figured out plastics, fish egg energy, and computers, surely at some point in their 2000+ year history, they figured out plant-based milks, cheeses, and yogurts.
It's also possible that recipes from the human era survived. maybe they learned about dairy products that way. oh wait isn't there a sunken scroll about human era recipes?
yes
There's also a non-zero chance that Judd could've taught the inklings about the human era and their food.
The other question i can think of is...
Q3: is there any specific mention of a plant based substitute being used instead of a mammalian product in splatoon?
A: yes<3
In 2019 there was JP only splatfest, pineapple vs. no pineapple. It's about whether you put pineapple on subuta (japanese sweet and sour pork.) (i dont have strong opinions on pineapple, but the subuta at gyoza no osho. bro it will make me hurt myself and others. literally licking the fucking plate its so yummy. anyways.)
Now pigs are extinct. How would pearl and marina have opinions on a pork dish?
「だな！ アタシんちの古い書庫で見つけたレシピで ロブに作ってもらったやつだろ？」
「豚という生き物が 絶滅しちゃってるから 大豆とかで代用した 「酢豚風」でしたけどね♪」
Pearl: "That's the recipe you found in the old archives at my place, and Crusty Sean made it for you, right?"
Marina: "Yeah, though since those creatures called pigs are extinct, he substituted it for soy and some other things to make a "subuta-style" dish~ "
this is the only thing i have seen that confirms plant-based substitutes being used for mammal meat in splatoon's setting. i learned of this just recently and i was SO happy this was confirmed somewhere<3
I think this gives a lot of weight to the idea that they'd use soy milk and other soy-based dairy products.
