NOT all fast food is junk food. In fact, some of the fastest food on the planet is pretty good for you. It's been the speciality of wagamama (sorry about that lower-case w, but that's their style, not mine), a major success story since it started on a site behind the British Museum in London in 1992. It has grown into a thriving group of stylish noodle bars, countrywide in the UK - including a branch at the Printworks, Manchester - and as far afield as Dublin, Amsterdam and Sydney.

The distinctive wagamama flavour has its roots in the 200-year-old ramen (noodle) shops of Japan which serve nourishing dishes based on noodles or rice in minutes. Now the group is sharing the secrets of that success with the publication of the wagamama cookbook by Hugo Arnold (Kyle Cathie, é14.99), a collection of recipes and concise, easy-to-follow guidance on how to make all the menu favourites at home. The 130 recipes include a wide range of exclusively created dishes from appetisers to noodle soups and stir-fries, plus exotic juices and desserts.

The Japanese eat a balanced, low fat, high energy diet and as a result have the longest life expectancy in the world. Yet the preparation time for most of the dishes in the wagamama cookbook is well inside 15 minutes.

To mark the publication of the book I have three copies to be won - and just to get our prizewinners in the mood, we'll include three meals for two at wagamama to the value of é30 for good measure. The Manchester Evening News can also offer readers the chance to buy the wagamama cookbook at the special price of é12.99 with free postage and packing. To order your copy, call 01903 828503, quoting ref MEN/W or email mailorders@lbsltd.co.uk

TO have the chance to be one of the three winners of the book and a meal for two, just tell me what the Japanese call noodles. Write your answer on a postcard together with your name, address and daytime telephone number and send it to wagamama Competition, PO Box 234, Manchester Evening News, 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RG.

THE winner of our é100 hamper, full of produce from the north west, to mark the North West Food Lovers' Festival in Westmoreland on June 19 and 20, is Brian Ingham of Crown Street, Ashton-under-Lyne. Ten runners-up, each winning a pair of tickets for the festival, are: Judith Brown of Ashley Drive, Bramhall; Rebecca Guest of Moorland Road, Woodsmoor, Stockport; Barbara Mitchell of Heatherside, Stalybridge; Cath Brennan of Lonsdale Road, Bolton; Digger Lee Mosey of Islington Way, Salford; Juliette Hansford of Cavendish Street, Ashton-under-Lyne; B Daniels of Wren Close, Birchwood, Warrington; Helen Barnett of Clyde Road, West Didsbury, Manchester; Diane Barritt of Cemetery Road, Darwen and Nick Evans of Culchreth Road, Altrincham.