CARNIVAL BRINGS GLOBAL FEAST TO OXFORD by Sarah Airey

Food is the delicious gift brought to us by the Cowley Road Carnival every year as aromas and flavours from all around the world fill the streets to tempt you this Sunday. You can gorge on the familiar Carnival classics such as Jerk Chicken and Goat Curry but with so many other dishes to discover including authentic Thai, Indonesian, Nepalese, Chinese, Indian, Sushi, and Smokehouse BBQ, my advice is to arrive at noon and make sure you give yourself time to work around the stalls and try as much as you can.

The main areas to head for are around the Bullingdon Car Park (Chapel Street and Union Street behind Tesco), the Discovery area in St Mary & St John Churchyard, and Manzil Gardens and the Manzil Way junction. This is where you can find The Oxford Indonesian Society, a major annual Carnival attraction. This year’s mouth-watering menu reflects the distinct characteristics of cuisine found in the different regions across Indonesia. Grab a dish and settle down to watch the Traditional Indonesian Dance performance on the Manzil Gardens stage starting just before 1pm.

In the same area you can also try Japanese (I’m Japanese), Thai (Desy Thai) and traditional West Indian dishes from the Oxford Community Soup Kitchen, Old Smokey BBQ and gourmet burgers from the Rusty Bicycle.

If you have young children with you go to the Restore Café and buy a Young Explorer’s Lunch box filled with goodies including sandwiches, a smoothie, organix crisps, colouring pencils and an activity pack to keep the kids happy. Cake-shaped happiness can be found in the Discovery area of the Churchyard. Julia Atkinson’s Happy Cakes trike will be filled with her delicious cup-cakes and home-made lemonade. Enjoy while you take part in science activities and demonstrations or watch the ballet and Shakespeare performances nearby.

If you head straight for the Bullingon Car Park, you needn’t budge all day. There are three stages with music from local bands, reggae and the Simple sound system, two bars including the Bullingdon cocktail bar and a seating area so you can really settle in. This is where you will find Julie and Yeshi Kleeman from ‘Taste Tibet’ with their famous Tibetan dishes including MOMO dumplings (see recipe). They live within walking distance of the Cowley Road and say: “This is where we source most of our ingredients: the chives that pep up our veg momo dumplings, the curry leaves that infuse our Himalayan curries, and the chillies that burn up our famous chilli dip.” They are “Hugely excited about holding a stall at Carnival this year.”

Banging Beans are also at Carnival for the first time. They are serving delicious gourmet style baked beans cooked from a Jack and the Bean Stalk themed van. Lauren Jennings started Banging Beans in 2015 inspired by her travels around the world. She says: “I noticed that every country has a favourite dish with beans in. Everyone loves beans!

“One of our speciality dishes is the Piggy Apple beans, which is a tomato sauce with pinto beans, caramelised apple and pork and apple sausage; all meat is locally sourced from Dews Meadow farm in East Hanney, all of their meat is free range and growth hormone free. This one is great toasted in a wrap with extra cheese.” (see picture)

The theme for this year’s procession is “All the World’s a Stage”. For foodies, Carnival is a stage for all the World’s food. Carnival is on 10 July, noon – 5pm. Programmes are available as you enter the festival site, please bring £1 to pay to keep carnival around. For more information, see www.cowleyroadcarnival.co.uk