With a pop­u­la­tion climb­ing steadi­ly to­ward the two mil­lion mark and a mind-numb­ing as­sort­ment of races, re­li­gions and cus­toms, it's no sur­prise that T&T cul­ture re­mains an un­solved mys­tery, even to our own in­hab­i­tants. To be sure, we each know ex­act­ly what we like as in­di­vid­u­als, but if we had to de­fine our so­ci­ety in a few words to a for­eign­er, what would we say? On Ju­ly 18, the Cloud Nine com­mit­tee will present their an­swer to this dilem­ma with three sim­ple words–Saut� Trin­ba­go 2010. The mag­nif­i­cent and re­cent­ly-re­fur­bished, Queen's Roy­al Col­lege court­yard is the venue cho­sen for this all-in­clu­sive cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ence, which aims to ef­fec­tive­ly pack­age the best that this coun­try has to of­fer.

The per­fect mix

"To saut�, lit­er­al­ly means to heat dif­fer­ent in­gre­di­ents to­geth­er and es­sen­tial­ly that's what we're do­ing on this oc­ca­sion: cre­at­ing the per­fect mix of the finest, hottest in­gre­di­ents," Shelly Ann Hee Chung of Link Me Ltd ex­plained. Saut� will fea­ture a wide as­sort­ment of culi­nary de­lights, from the tasti­est aloo pies, mi­ni roti and dou­bles, to pelau, oil down, bake and shark, souse and corn soup. Spe­cial­ty dish­es will al­so be pre­pared by pop­u­lar es­tab­lish­ments such as Beni­hana (Sushi rolls); Miss Trim's (To­ba­go–cur­ry crab and dumplings); Nick's Gy­ros; Wood­ford Caf�; and, Co­co Lounge (ap­pe­tis­ers), just to name a few.

As pa­trons feast on these sump­tu­ous dish­es, en­joy in­dige­nous treats like sug­ar cake, red man­go, fudge, jub jub and Fla­vorite frozen desserts, their di­ges­tion will al­so be en­hanced by a mul­ti-cul­tur­al dance troupe, drum­mers, mid­night rob­bers, moko jumbies, steel­pan and tas­sa en­sem­bles, as well as live en­ter­tain­ment from Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter and YOU, Dil-e-Nadan, DJ Dar­ryl and event founder DJ Shaun Chris­t­ian.

Chef in ac­tion.

Ex­pe­ri­ence of a life­time

Ac­cord­ing to Chris­t­ian, what start­ed as a sim­ple fund-rais­er has turned in­to some­thing huge. "I start­ed this event last year as a fund-rais­er for a friend of mine who need­ed ur­gent med­ical as­sis­tance. But in putting it to­geth­er and try­ing to cre­ate an en­ter­tain­ing evening for our pa­trons, I re­alised just how vast and amaz­ing our cul­ture re­al­ly is, and de­cid­ed that I would make it an an­nu­al event and use it to show­case the many won­der­ful in­gre­di­ents that con­tribute to our unique ex­is­tence here in T&T." Al­ready in­clud­ed as a bmo­bile Hot Tick­et event, Saute will al­so fea­ture the launch of a brand new Car­ni­val band, Oa­sis, as its or­gan­is­ers aim to craft a per­fect blend of our in­dige­nous cul­ture and fine cui­sine.

"We're re­al­ly try­ing to cre­ate a once-in-a-life­time ex­pe­ri­ence," said event co-or­di­na­tor, Sheena Tang Nian. "We want our pa­trons to be­come ful­ly im­mersed in every­thing that is Trinidad and To­ba­go. So, from the time they en­ter the gate, all through their meals, drinks, the en­ter­tain­ment seg­ments and even af­ter they leave the venue, they should res­onate with the pow­er of the am­bi­ence and the to­tal Trin­bag­on­ian ex­pe­ri­ence." Tick­ets for Saute 2010 can be pur­chased ex­clu­sive­ly from com­mit­tee mem­bers and par­tic­i­pat­ing venues.

For more in­for­ma­tion, call 74-SAUTE (747-2883) e-mail: sautetrin­ba­go@gmail.com, or log on to face­book, scorch.com or triniscene.com