Faith's Pen

Faith's Pen is a run of numbered cookshops on the old road over Mount Rosser, built as a proper rest stop and serving the traffic that used to cross the island this way. Each stall has a number and its own regulars, and the food is Jamaican cooking done for drivers: mannish water, curry goat, jerk pork, roast yam, soup, corn. The new highway took most of the through traffic, which has thinned the place out but not closed it.

What you actually see

• The numbered stalls - a row of cookshops each with its own following.
• The soup - mannish water and red pea soup, the strip's staple.
• The roast yam and corn - cooked over coals at the front of the stalls.
• The mountain road - the old crossing over Mount Rosser.

When to go

Year round; the stalls run through the day and into the evening. Weekends are busiest. The new highway means far less traffic than in past decades.

Honest expectations

Trade has fallen since the highway opened and some stalls are closed. Standards vary between stalls and picking a busy one matters. Facilities are basic.

Nearby

Ocho Rios is north, and Spanish Town is south.