Helen Peacocke finds wonderful and exotic dishes being showcased ahead of the carnival

Gosh, what a fantastic day! If I’d been told that there would come a day when I’d be invited to eat my way along Oxford’s Cowley Road, and all in the guise of work, I doubt I would have believed it.

But I was — so in the company of my friend Sarah Airey I did just that. My quest was to familiarise myself with the food to be served at the Cowley Road Carnival. Would it be as colourful and exciting as the carnival participants who will be dancing, singing and entertaining as they progress along the Cowley Road on Sunday, July 6?

The carnival is not just the city’s largest community event, but a celebration of Oxford’s multicultural society. As most Oxonians and students are aware, Cowley Road boasts a remarkable array of food outlets, which demonstrate the rich diversity of the cuisines being prepared in this area of East Oxford.

Most food traders and their chefs see the carnival as a great chance to show off their wares and cook special foods which reflect the choices on their menus but are not necessarily part of their regular menu. Much of the food served on tables set up outside the shops will be finger food, enabling those passing by to eat as they watch the parade.

As so much effort goes into making this day special, the least Sarah and I could do was walk the entire length of this remarkable road, tasting items from the restaurant menus as we progressed.

We began our perambulation at The Cape of Good Hope, an imposing Cask Marque credited pub that stands between the Iffley and Cowley roads. As we entered, so did a cheerful group of students celebrating the completion of their finals. They ordered craft beers for which the pub is known and typical British dishes such as fish and chips, and hamburgers served with crunchy double fried chips.

The table set out in front of the Hi Jamaican restaurant further down the road was occupied by a group of Jamaican residents playing dominoes.

It goes without saying that jerk chicken and jerk pork will offered from this table during the carnival. Plantains too, which are the starchy cousins of the banana, normally cooked rather than eaten raw.

There are four chefs employed at The First Floor Restaurant and bar, known for the four different cuisines served there. An Indian, Chinese and Thai menu, along with a list of Continental foods, are offered here.

Spicy Chinese chicken wings, which taste as good as they look, are this restaurant’s signature dish though the First Floor’s fragrant Green Curry is certainly worth trying too, also the small pieces of fish fried in a light, crispy batter that comes with subtle hints of spice. Abdul Shorkar, the restaurant’s director, says the fish pieces are the First Floor’s answer to Thai fishcakes.

The nearby Lebanese kitchen. Pomegranate. known for its wraps, hot mezze and dishes such as hummus and falafel, seemed a happy buzzing place. We left this establishment munching on a couple of warm fatayers created from baked pastry stuffed with spinach, onion, pine kernals and sumac spices. They were good.

Aziz Oxford’s award-winning Indian restaurant comes next. Mr Aziz sees the carnival as a wonderful way of showing off his food to the world as it passes his door. He has devised a glorious curry for the carnival revellers that celebrates the diversity of the foods being offered on the day. By adding lychees, mangoes and chunks of pineapple to a tasty chicken curry, his chefs have added an element of sweetness to the dish, but not too much. Indeed, I found it had a gloriously light finish that left me asking for more. Obviously he is naming this new curry Carnival Chicken and will be serving it from the tables that will be groaning with food by the restaurant’s front door.

One of the most colourful arrays of food can be found at Millefeuille Café and Patisserie, known for their freshly baked celebration cakes. The café’s signature dish is the very cake that the shop is named after — the Millefeuille — known by some as the cake of a thousand leaves. Basically it’s a vanilla and custard slice made from puff pastry filled with three layers of crème patissiere, the final layer glazed with a white fondant and decorated with chocolate stripes. Delicious!

We concluded our journey, having called in at several more restaurants including the Greek Taverna, and the American Diner, by visiting Restore, Manzil Way, where we sat in a beautiful quintessentially English garden, the fragrance of roses wafting all aound us, eating home-made scones served with clotted cream and strawberries, and in doing so ended our journey as we had begun it, in an establishment serving English food.

In between we had travelled the world and tasted some quite remarkable foods.