There seems to be a lot of anticipation about the new Sakae Sushi restaurant on non-Singaporean websites here. Gothamist wanted to go try it out but it was closed. Midtown lunch had to beg to go see the restaurant. I bumped into the owner at some Singapore festival last summer and he mentioned how hard it’s been to get all the licenses together, etc.

Midtown lunch also posted a sample menu. And I baulked. Then sighed. The base by which I measure how (a) good and (b) expensive a Japanese restaurant is is by the (a) quality and (b) price of their salmon sushi, which is my favorite sushi.

Based on the Big Mac Index, current values (US$1 = S$1.4167), and assuming that the Big Mac prices haven’t changed (US$3.41 here and S$3.90 in Singapore), show that the SGD is 18% undervalued against the dollar.

Using the same model, 2 pieces of salmon nigiri at US$3.90 in NYC vs. S$1.99 in Singapore leads to the SGD being 64% undervalued against the dollar. That would exclude the ~20% tip that’s tacitly mandatory, including which the number goes to 70%

OR, economics aside, it could just simply be that NYC is FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!!!

In Oct 04, I wrote “Eating Japanese food in Singapore for 1/4 of the price I’d have to pay in San Francisco makes me very very very happy”. Flip the emotions today.