I've got food on the brain, I do. One will find that most people in this city do.

This year, Rising Tide is sponsoring a food drive to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank, and we need everybody to bring some food to help feed those in need. Where Second Harvest has been elemental this year for many families has been in the areas most directly affected by the BP oil disaster. Bills have been piling up for the fishermen and women of southeast Louisiana's coastal parishes, and Second Harvest's ongoing mission of providing for them could use some support. When you come to the Howlin' Wolf on Saturday morning, bring some nonperishable food items with you. Many thanks in advance for your mitzvah.

The other reason why I have food on the brain is due to recent travels in the great gray northwest. Dan looked at many restaurant menus online before our jaunt to Alaska and found that nearly every menu had halibut on it. Halibut, halibut, halibut, and in many cases, it was on there just for the halibut....okay, sorry, couldn't resist that bad joke. Alaskan seafood is a big deal, to such a degree that it was tough to find places that had things other than the local sea life on the menu, as our seven-year-old is not a big fan of fish of any kind unless they are swimming around in tanks. But we managed and ended up having some very nice meals there that had nothing to do with cheesy salmon bake places. Yeah, we're food snobs...

...but we weren't so snobby as to come to Alaska only to eat at their best Cajun restaurant. In fact, I didn't even know it existed until I saw one of their cookbooks in an Alaska Railroad gift shop. Maybe we'll leave it for another time when we bring the kid up for a couple of days in winter to see the aurora borealis. And I do mean a couple of days. It gets bone-chillingly cold up there, even in the summer.

So my $5 Rising Tide contest question for the day - after you've read my rules and registered and/or donated to the conference - is a two-parter. If you are the first to get one answer right, but don't get the other part correct, you will get partial credit. Put your answer in the comments below before my next question appears at 11:30 AM tomorrow morn:

• Who ate more halibut - Dan or me?
• What's the name of the best Cajun restaurant in Alaska?

Check the Rising Tide blog to see all of Varg's links to what our panelists and speakers this year have been up to. They are a busy bunch.

Congratulations also go to yesterday's contest winner granzombi, who correctly said the ATC "house band" was Bonerama. See you at the conference! My $5 is now your $5.