It would also be better if it had a long handle so that the hands weren't quite so

It would also be better if it had a long handle so that the hands weren't quite so near the heat," said Portia Dean "The daft handle makes it impractical to use as a wok. But it would probably be a good paellapan," said Kirsten Jensen. The panel liked the non-stick surface, though.*Le Creuset (28cm/11in)£65.95, including lid, stand and burner This wok lets you to show off your stir-fry skills to your guests as it has a stand and a burner to use at the table (similar to one in a fondue set). As the cast iron wok takes a long time to heat, you need to start it off on the cooker first, though. A lthough some admired the wok's style, it was difficult to use, mainly because of its weight "Heavy, clumsy, the food sticks to the pan Trendy but useless," said Michelle Hattee. It had the same type of handle problem as the Prestige wok and it was also hard to shake the pan: "It was heavy and impossible to move," said Ayako Ueno.

"Very elegant once it gets to the table, but not worth the fuss and money to get it there," added Kirsten Jensen.**Tefal Electric Wok (36cm/14in)£69.99, including lid, tempura rack The panel got good cooking results and found the wok, which sits on top of an electric element, convenient to use "Easy and very quick to heat up It heats the whole wok right up the sides Very little oil was needed,because of the non-stick surface I was very impressed with this wok," said Sophie Wood. Although the wok has short handles, they are made of a heat-resistant material A major drawback was the price, however. Some worried that it didn't look very authentic, although not for Korean student Kyung Ho Choi. "At home, everyone has this one," he said.***Meyer Electric Wok (36cm/14in)£40, including lid, tempura rack, steam rack, cooxing and eating chopsticks, spatula There was very little to choose between this and the Tefal electric wok, but the Meyer is much cheaper, hence its higher star rating. Unlike the Tefal, it has the electric element built into its base.

"Heated up very quickly, with good temperature control," said Portia Dean. "A good non-stick surface, with very little oil needed and a good end result," commented Sophie Wood. But Ayako Ueno preferred her favourite Tefal,despite its price: "The Meyer is cheaper, but I wouldn't choose it," she said.Stockists: William Levene/Ken Hom available at leading department stores nationwide (readers' inquiries 081-868 4355); Mandelstam available from Divertimenti, 45-47 Wigmore Street, London W1H 9LE, 071-935 0689; Prestige available from Allders and good department stores; for stockists of Le Creuset, ring 0800 373792; Tefal 0604 762726; Meyer: 051-604 0036.NEXT WEEK: CHILDREN'S TOOTHPASTE. Thousands of personal computers found homes this Christmas - more still during the January sales. But many new (and old) owners of these machines are left baffled by what they can do and fearful of the vast electronic world out there. This week w e begina straightforward weekly guide to cruising the information superhighway. Anyone with a telephone line and one of these computers can queue up on the sliproad to the network.

All they need is a "modem" to link the devices together, which costs less than £200. Then, for the price of a cappuccino a day, a new world of communication can be theirs. Much has been written about the information superhighway, and much of it is impenetrable and confusing. Even in the plethora of names used to describe it, experts seem determined to make this simple idea as complex as possible. The superhighway, the Internet, the Infobahn, the CyFiWay, multimedia, cyberspace and virtual reality are some of the terms used to describe ways of transferring and accessing digitised information.Music on a compact disc is "digitised", or broken up into millions of signals, but it is not just sound that can be treated in this way. The power of computers means pictures, film, text and graphics can be turned into a string of computer signals. Once this has been done, they can be mixed together (hence multimedia) and "poured" down a telephone line.The basis of the electronic highway is simply the ability to transfer all sorts of digitised data down the line. When the old copper phone lines are replaced by optical fibre, their capacity will increase many thousands of times: at this stage the highway becomes a superhighway, and almost limitless amounts of information can fly between computers around the world.