Gourmet Geometry: Do you cut your sandwiches into triangles or rectangles? NPR makes a surprisingly detailed argument for triangles.

Who Has Better Chefs: the East Coast or the West? The debate continues (rather nastily) in the New York Times.

Worst Drive-Thru Robbery Ever: A Michigan man goes to a Wendy's drive-thru with a sawed-off shotgun and demands the cash in the till. Guess who learns that you should never rob your own mother's restaurant?

More food news after the jump ...

Most of us associate Thanksgiving with being stuffed to the gills with delicious cooking, but it's also a good time to think about those who don't have enough on their tables. If you'd like to share a bit of your bounty this year, there are several organizations that make it easy:

Feeding America (formerly called "America's Second Harvest") is a national "food bank." What this means is that they help collect food and get it to people who are hungry, through a network of more than 63,000 local organizations. Because they're national, they can also advocate for hunger relief with the government. They're a highly respected, well-run organization, with 97% of each donated dollar going directly to programs.

This Thanksgiving, Feeding America is running a drive called the Thanksgiving Feast for Nine Million. The goal is to raise the money to feed nine million meals to hungry Americans. Every dollar donated provides seven meals.

The Epicurious Tailgating Recipe Contest is in full swing. We just announced the ten finalists and now it's time for you to vote for your favorite recipe. Your votes will determine the top three contenders, each of whom will fly to Fort Lauderdale to compete in a Super Bowl weekend cook-off for the chance to win a Blue Ember iQue Digital Grill (the two runners-up get a SonarQue Propane Fuel Monitor).

The best part about voting is that for each vote cast, Epicurious will donate $1 to Taste of the NFL to benefit Feeding America and help support food banks around the country (up to $10,000).

Voting ends December 8 so VOTE NOW!

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
Official Contest Rules

For game-day recipes, drinks, gear, and more, check out our Ultimate Tailgating Guide.

1. The FDA has pushed through a ban on raw oysters during warm months, effective in 2011, sparking restaurateurs' and consumers' complaints about a "nanny state." How many deaths does the FDA say bacteria from raw oysters causes each year?
a. 15
b. 50
c. 100
d. 150

2. Which of the following wasn't on the menu when Rachael Ray made a visit to a Cincinnati soup kitchen last weekend?
a. cheesy potato casserole
b. roast beef
c. ham
d. chicken soup

1. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has rated the sweet potato (baked) the most nutritious vegetable around, giving it a nutrition score of 184. What came in second?
a. spinach
b. regular potato (baked)
c. broccoli
d. tomato

2. What's the relationship between a sweet potato and a yam?
a. A yam is the non-sweet variety of the same vegetable.
b. A yam is a white or unripe sweet potato.
c. They're completely different vegetables, and not even part of the same family.
d. They're two names for the exact same vegetable.

3. Whose men were the first Europeans to eat a sweet potato?
a. James Cook
b. Alonso de Ojeda
c. Ponce de Leon
d. Christopher Columbus

The do-gooders at City Harvest are used to dealing with big numbers: They collect more than 20 million pounds of excess food from restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms. And then they deliver the food to more than 600 community food programs throughout New York City helping more than 260,000 hungry New Yorkers.

On Tuesday night, they added another stat to their repertoire: At the annual Bid Against Hunger event inside the Metropolitan Pavilion, the company raised more than $700,000, topping last year's $600,000 mark. (Loyal Epi-Log readers may recall I tackled the tough assignment last year too, reporting on how folks like Star Jones and Nicole Miller helped celebrity chefs raise more than $600,000 for the charity.)

Last night, the talent pool featured chefs from Le Bernardin, Gramercy Tavern, Craft, Landmarc, Table 8, Butter, Jean Georges, Daniel, Per Se, Le Cirque, Toloache, Tabla, Corton, Stumptown Coffee, Dovetail, Locanda Verde, Dutch Kills, Apotheke, Rosa Mexicano, and Strip House. among others. Kelly Choi, of "Top Chef Masters," was the event host.

Highlights:

Top bid: $55,000 for a wine tasting at Le Bernardin with sommelier Aldo Sohm, dinner for eight at Le Bernardin. and a cooking class with Eric Ripert.

Coolest offering: Tickets to the Vanity Fair Oscar party ($36,000)

Wild-card surprise: A private dinner at home with John Stage (Dinosaur BBQ) and Tom Valenti (Ouest, West Branch), which sold for $22,000.

Photos from the event can be viewed but are not of the highest quality. My apologies: I was too busy eating.

The Backyard of Milk and Honey: Hey, city folks, don't you hate how you have to trudge all the way to the grocery to get your honey? Why don't you invest in an urban beekeeping kit, which will probably annoy your neighbors no end until you give them free honey for the first time. (Wonder what the honey from those flowers on traffic islands tastes like.)

luv d new twitter wine, lol! Yes, Twitter has officially taken over the world, and is starting its own Twitter wine label, with the proceeds going to an educational charity.

Five Books Every Cook Should Have: The Atlantic Monthly lists its cooks' canon (well, the categories, with personal examples): a good reference book, a pastry book, a Junior League book, an Italian technique book, and "a book to nourish loved ones." A Junior League book?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and all sorts of companies, including those that make running shoes, clothes, makeup, housewares, and (our favorites) food products and cooking gear, are donating a portion of proceeds to help support research to find a cure. Here are a few to consider:

Corso's Cookies and Vera Bradley Hope Garden Cookie Bouquet (pictured, photo courtesy of Corso's Cookies)

KitchenAid's Cook for the Cure

Beemster Cheese, supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure

For more pretty-in-pink ideas see Pink Products for the Chic Chef from Self and Food Products and Kitchen Aplliances to Support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month from yumsugar.com.

Share your own favorite for-the-cure products in the comments section below.

The New York City Department of Education has spoken: no more bake sales.

In a move to minimize how much sugar and fat New York City schoolkids eat, the Education Department has released a new set of regulations that effectively ban school bake sales, the New York Times reports. That means that all food-based school fund raisers are on hold for now, while they rejigger to accommodate the new restrictions.

Padma Lakshmi Has a Bun in the Oven: The "Top Chef" host, who suffers from a reproductive ailment that made pregnancy difficult to achieve, is expecting her first child.

Sweet Tooth? Or Criminal Intent? A British study has found a link between eating candy as a kid an committing serious crimes as an adult. Wait a month or two before the candy companies fund a study that finds that kids who eats sweets are more likely to be musical geniuses or cure cancer.

The "Baby Back Ribs" Jingle Is Coming Back: Chili's is reviving the annoying, stick-in-your-head song in a new commercial. Yay. (Note the lack of an exclamation point.)

School Food From Scratch: The New York Times looks at how a New York City school tries to cook try to feed thousands of kids well with the limited means at hand. But hey, pizza Fridays!

More food news after the jump ...