Local curry queen featured in Durban Curry Up2Date cookbook

Local culinary talent and restaurateur Shamen Reddi’s authentic Indian cuisine has left a lasting mark on many palettes and some of her iconic dishes are featured in the latest collaboration of Ballito foodie Erica Platter and Clinton Friedman’s Durban Curry Up2Date cookbook.

Shamen is the owner of Impulse by the Sea, Tinley Manor’s quintessential curry spot whose local dishes have remained a firm favourite with locals and overseas guests who often refer to her curry as the best in town.

Shamen’s authentic and unpretentious food is still as popular as the day she and her husband Neville opened the doors, some 20-years ago.

“In 1990, Neville was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer so we decided it was time to slow down and moved to the North Coast for a quieter lifestyle and a better place to raise our four children. My parents were farmers in Groutville so it was natural to settle nearby.”

The Reddi family leased a small premises in Tinley Manor, and opened their takeaway spot, Impulse by the Sea.

“Neville was very into music and deejaying at the time and so we called it ‘Impulse by the Sea’. The name just stuck. We did think about changing it to something more ‘Indian’ over the years, but this is how everyone knows us now,” says Shamen.

The restaurant naturally evolved from takeaways to a sit down restaurant as the popularity and demand for their food grew.

While the restaurant was growing, Shamen and Neville worked long hours, raising four children and dealing with Neville’s illness, going in and out of remission and enduring the effects of chemotherapy. Despite being given just eight years to live when he was first diagnosed, Neville lived a further 24 years before passing away in 2014.

Shamen has continued to run the business on her own with a small contingency of staff who have been with her for a number of years.

“Impulse by the Sea is such a rewarding business and I am still passionate about it and all the traditional Indian dishes which have been handed down from generation to generation. I have improved on some traditional recipes but have tried to keep it as authentic as possible as every curry is unique, with its own blend of spices and the chef’s use and combination of ingredients.”

‘So much of flavour’ was the sub-title of the first book on Durban curry by Erica Platter and Clinton Friedman. The cover featured the famous Impulse prawn curry.

In the latest book by the same authors Shamen’s three signature dishes have been included. Her signature crab curry, the kebab roti and the vegetarian bean curry which also graces the front cover of the cook book.

The new book will be available in bookstores from mid-June.

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