Quick bites: Food & Drink news

FROM JUNE 1, the great outdoors just got urban groovy with Wapping Picnic. Devised by the team at one of my favourite destinations, Wapping Food, it means that you can enjoy a picnic lunch created by the restaurant chefs in the grounds of this imposing exhydraulic power station restaurant and gallery.

As well as food, a rug and picnic box will also be provided. It's hardly sylvan or bucolic, but for the design-conscious devotees of Wapping Food - chaps like Graham Norton, Stella McCartney, Jarvis Cocker and, er, Janet Street-Porter - who needs trees?

Wapping Food , Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall E1. Tel: 020 7680 2080. Tube: Wapping

I HESITATE ever to mention Pret A Manger since they so weaselishly sold out such a chunk to McDonald's, but it does have to be admitted that they have the occasional good idea. The latest is a boon to harassed shoppers with children.

No longer is the global junk food giant the only option for a quick bite that'll appeal to the little ones, now they can have handmade, fresh food with the emphasis on healthier choices and organic ingredients.

But, more importantly, with choices like sandwiches of jam, cheese, ham, or egg mayo, followed by brownies and specially designed puds (I can't bring myself to tell you what they've called them - oh, all right then, Elephant Poo and Polar Bear Poo. I mean, really), kids are actually likely to want to eat them.

CAN'T COOK, won't cook. Leapingsalmon. com is offering oven-shy commuters an alternative to microwave meals. Pick up a gourmet meal kit on your way through Victoria Station and you can rustle up something worthy of Michel Blanc in the time it takes for a pizza to be delivered.

At least that's the theory. This culinary naif managed to produce a perfectly realised (if aesthetically-challenged) Beef Wellington using only five pots and with a minimum of perspiration.

Prices are high given you have to cook it yourself - main courses cost upwards of £15 for two - but if all goes as it should, the end result is restaurant quality.

Tel: 08701 701 9100 or www.leapingsalmon.com for info.