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Stewed Peas Tuesdays on Job Lane

Published:Thursday | July 4, 2019 | 12:00 AMRasbert Turner/Gleaner Writer
Marlon Morris’ smile should be enough to convince you.
Yummy is your tummy. Karyn’s stewed peas.
Sweet and sour chicken served with rice and peas can become your ‘Spain Town’ love.
How do you love your fried fish?
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Spanish Town, St Catherine, is known for many things, and while food isn’t necessarily one of them, right down Job Lane is Karyn’s Sweet Food Restaurant. Food visited the rustic restaurant on its most popular day, ‘Stewed Peas Tuesdays’. Karyn, head chef and proprietor, considers her job a ‘special calling’ despite the fact that she has had no formal training.

“While I prepare other dishes on a Tuesday, stewed peas is all that the customers ask for,” she said humbly.

The stew of the matter

Just as good as grandma used to make it on the coal stove in the yard, Karyn makes her stewed peas into meat lover’s delight. Salt beef, corned pig trotters, pig’s tail and of course the ‘steppaz’, more popularly known as chicken feet, are all carefully cleaned, soaked, and cooked with much attention. And if that isn’t enough to get you in your car and en route to Job Lane, she brings everything to a boil with natural coconut milk, scallion, thyme, and garlic over an open flame. Served with steamed rice and/or ground provisions, Karyn continues to satisfy the taste buds of her growing customer base.

Marlon Morris, who has ‘pitched his tent’ in Job Lane on Tuesdays for the past 10 years, said the stew is so good he refuses to have anything else for lunch. His view was echoed by Karliyle Brown.

“Bwoy, is one of mi fren that carried a dish of this strew peas to the office and ever since I’ve been here every Tuesday to get mi lunch. The taste is simply divine, and it shows clearly that this lady knows exactly what she is doing in the kitchen, and there is no better food office kind to be found anywhere around,” Brown said.

If you care for authentic local meals and an extensive array of beverages to refresh yourself, Karyn’s Sweet Food Restaurant is the place in Spanish Town for you.