... Lunch or “la comida” is the most substantial meal of the day. Each family member will return home from their respective professional or academic activities to reassemble around a delicious home-cooked meal. Preparations for this occasion are already in motion since morning. Mum has visited the butcher, fisherman, and greengrocer, and pots are stewing on low to medium heat.

As a kid, you follow, watch, and most importantly, make yourself as useful as possible. In the evenings and weekends, people will socialise with friends while bar hopping around the city. Going from tapa to tapa, conversation to conversation, one juggles their dinner and social life with a glass of preferred beverage in hand.

“The day-to-day food culture in Spain” - this is where Marta draws her inspiration from, and what she tries to bring directly to your table.

From innocent workshops to a prospective catering business and finally, a full-blown restaurant, the essence of the brand will always be “home”. Where are we eating? At Marta’s.

However, having her name printed on the shop front, only made the responsibility she felt more daunting. Marta’s motto is to only serve her customers what she would serve her kids, so everything is made from scratch without additives. “Feeding people is such a huge responsibility.

It is a lot of work to create a menu that is good and consistently good. I’ve never worked so hard in my life. For three years, I work 80 hours a week and since July, I got three days off,” she says ruefully. In return, the friendships and community she has built through the restaurant do compensate for the exacting efforts. “To see people enjoying the food.

On Sundays, I have Spanish couples in their 30s with kids coming here and they act the same way like they would when they go to see their mum because they feel at home. They tell me that the food is exactly how one would taste it in Spain. That makes a world of difference to me and keeps me going.”