Food connects people. Food represents culture. Food helps build relationships too. Well, US Ambassador to India Richard Verma and food connoisseurs Mayur Sharma and Rocky Singh set out to trace the “cultural connections through food” between the two countries — India and the US — and explored the cuisines from east, west, north and south of India in a year marked by “Modbama bromance”. The envoy and the acclaimed foodies shared their views on Indian and American food, and released the second part of the video Adventures in Indian Cuisine: Ambassador Verma’s Culinary Journey with Rocky and Mayur in an interactive session compared by Ellen Barry here on Monday.

Verma, who was appointed as the ambassador to India earlier in the year, has travelled across the country and tasted different cuisines. “I have been in India for about 10-and-a-half months and took almost 27 trips across the country, from Assam in the Northeast, down to the South in Kerala, back to Punjab from where my grandparents come,” Verma said, adding, “Even in the US every state has different varieties of food, but we don’t have the flavour profile like India.”

Quite unusually, Rocky and Mayur first made Verma taste the Bihari food. Rocky said, “Bihari cuisine is underrated and it deserves its place in the sun.” From sattu cooler to litti chokha, the envoy loved every bit of the food served to him in Potbelly restaurant. Next, it was Verma&’s turn to taste some dosa and vada, and he relished the good food. The eastern and southern food experiences were shot and released as the first video.

In their second outing, the two foodies took Verma to two distinct places for some Gujarati and Rajasthani dishes, and kebabs and biryanis. Rajdhani, the popular food joint, was ready to serve, much to the ambassador&’s surprise over 22,000 dishes!

After tasting the sweet Gujarati dal, the trio went ahead to taste mushroom galouti kebabs, sheermal, burra kebab, mutton biryani with salan and raita. Verma, who calls himself a “food enthusiast”, looked quite happy tasting all the delicious dishes. The second outing&’s video was released and shared with the audiences at the American Center.

The US ambassador, who ate aloo ka parantha for breakfast as a kid, thanked Rocky and Mayur for taking him to “a trip down the memory lane” because that was “the kind of food” that he used to “taste as a kid, and it brought back a lot of memories”.

While Indian food was appreciated, Rocky underlined the fact that when it comes to desserts the Americans surely occupy the top spot. “We have a lot many options for desserts. But by and large the manner you have gone with them is incredible,” Rocky told Verma.

“The chocolates, pastries and brownies are just spectacular. But, you are the most obese and we are at number three. So, we have to catch up with the United States on that front,” the Highway on My Plate co-host said as the audiences and Verma cracked up. “We’ll bring the starters and the main course, and you bring the desserts,” Rocky added.

When Ellen asked the two about the popular dhaba culture and dhaba food of India, Rocky and Mayur said the way dhabas play with spices is unique and they don’t cook by taking measures as “it’s just an art”. “If there’s a bad dhaba in India, then your client is going to beat you up and shut you down. This doesn’t happen in fancy restaurants,” they added.

Verma — who was gifted two T-shirts by the duo for agreeing to taste all the food that came his way — hoped that the ties between India and America grew further. “We have the highest number of Indians studying in the United States now. If we, the US and India, come together then peace and prosperity is possible. This year President Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had bi-lateral talks on many occasions and we hope to push it further,” the ambassador signed off on a positive note.