One of the things I found interesting about Iceland is that, at least when I was doing fieldwork there (~12 years ago), beef was outrageously expensive, but lamb and salmon were relatively cheap. We "had" to eat a lot of lamb and salmon to keep costs down.<p>For that reason, a lot of restaurants with burgers on the menu served ground lamb instead of ground beef. Lambburgers are tasty!<p>At the time, I worked at a McDonald's back home. I had no intention of eating at one abroad, but I was curious to see what an Icelandic McDonald's would look like. I went to one somewhere in/near Keflavik shortly after we arrived, and while the menu looked more or less the same, a regular cheesburger was the equivalent of ~$10. (Not the meal, or a quarter pounder, just a cheesburger.) At the time, I was completely flabbergasted.<p>I'd wager a significant portion of the reason that all McDonald's closed in Iceland is simply cost. Beef is more-or-less entirely imported, and is therefore very expensive. Lamb is cheaper and tastier. McDonald's uses all beef (and bad beef, at that), and just can't compete with local short-order restaurants.<p>Keep in mind that this was in 2002-2003, well before the recent economic troubles in Iceland. It was also the first time I'd ever been outside the US. Everything seemed outrageously expensive to me, partly just because I was living in one of the cheapest cities in the US (my share of the rent was $80/month) and was getting by on ~$300/month.<p>Also, Iceland has _incredible_ hot dogs, weirdly enough... Natural casing, better meat (lamb, maybe?), and they're nicely seasoned. They're just plain good. We used to cook them in an aluminum foil packet with onions over the fire, and then sear them a touch over the flames after the onions were cooked. I'll never look at hot dogs the same way again!