Everything 'Drag Race' Star Queen Priyanka Loves About Toronto

An all dressed chip will change your life.

It is literally what it says it is, all dressed.

It has ketchup. [gasps]

You don't have ketchup chips in America either do you?

No wonder all of you are so miserable.

Hi everybody, it's me, Priyanka.

Icon, pop star, drag diva legend.

And I am gonna show you everything that makes me

so proud to be from Toronto.

We are gonna try some food and drink.

Look at some places to go, teach you some slang,

and also look at some icons all from

my beautiful hometown of Toronto.

[upbeat music]

If you're visiting Toronto,

here are some foods that you must try.

This is butter tart.

Okay! Research. [bell dings]

If you Google Canadian foods,

[fork clinks] butter tart baby.

I don't even know why a butter tart is a Canadian thing,

but I like butter.

So, I would say you have to try this.

Okay.

Mm. Oh shit.

Yo, I love being Canadian.

For those of you who don't know what a butter tart is,

it's a flaky, beautiful pastry that you get at a bakery.

I keep forgetting that they are a Canadian thing,

because I feel like how do you not live

your life without a butter tart, you know?

I was very shocked to hear that y'all

don't have all dressed chips here.

An all dressed chip will change your life.

It is literally what it says it is, all dressed.

So we take salt and vinegar, sour cream and onion, ketchup.

It has all the dresses in it.

You get to watch me eat this.

[Priyanka crunches]

Baby, oh, and barbecue.

Barbecue, salt and vinegar, ketchup,

sour cream and onion, all together as one.

Mm. Oh my God, right?

Did you try them yet?

Okay, if there's one thing that I love about Toronto,

it's all the amazing, amazing, amazing

West Indian restaurants there are.

And this is roti. [bell dings]

Oh my God, [laughs] this is amazing.

But you could tell this is Trinidadian.

There's a difference.

You could tell it's Trinidadian,

because of the spices that they use.

It's not that it's bad, it's just

that it tastes different to a Guyanese.

But honestly, these Trinidadian people

got their shit together.

The foundation and the bones of Toronto,

I feel are West Indian food.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I'm so hungry.

Oh my God, I love this.

This is the best day of my life.

Okay, now we're gonna move on to the next one.

Last, but certainly not least,

the Nanaimo bar. [bell dings]

Okay, Nanaimo is a place in British Columbia

and they invented this bar.

When I used to work in kids television,

they flew me from Toronto all the way to Vancouver

to learn how to make a Nanaimo bar

in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Okay. Wow.

Mm, this is good.

Mm.

Okay, so there's like a layer of hard chocolate on top

and then there's this cream stuff.

I forget what's in the cream stuff.

It's honestly amazing, full of sugar.

So be careful.

This was delicious, but we gotta keep going.

Because I will be eating this all day.

[upbeat music]

If you're coming to Toronto,

when you wanna get a little bit lit,

here are some drinks you must try.

When I was trying to be a straight girl at the club,

[chuckles] I would, you have to get a beer,

because like what are you doing?

Labatt Blue, this is as Canadian as beer gets, okay?

Everybody cheers to you and yours.

This is the most Canadian thing I've ever done.

Labatt blue is like discount beer.

That's what it gives.

So that's like as Canadian, that's like me on a first date.

I'm a cheap date.

But the headliner, okay, listen, listen,

listen, listen, listen, listen.

If you do not know what a caesar is, get outta my face.

It's not a bloody mary.

I don't give a fuck about Mary. Kill her.

Clamato juice.

Did you put clamato juice in this?

It better not be tomato juice.

I'm not drinking pasta sauce, bitch.

If you don't know what clamato juice is,

clam juice and tomato juice mixed into one.

I know what you're thinking.

Oh, I thought the same thing [straw stirring]

until you have this.

People call it a brunch drink.

No honey, I'm having this breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I'm on the dance floor at the club with my caesar, like.

This is my favorite drink in the whole world.

Cross the border and just try one of these.

That's it. That's all you gotta do.

The best of the best.

Love you, bitch.

[upbeat music]

Here are some of my favorite things

that I like to do in Toronto.

Ha ha. [gasps]

Oh my god, I broke it.

[pointer taps]

Okay, here we go.

This is where the partying is happening, okay hun?

This is where I had my first hookup with a boy.

The first time I came out to my friend, she was like,

Let's go to the gay bar.

I was so nervous.

So we go to Church Street, we go to a bar.

I'm pounding back shots of tequila.

But you know when you're so anxious you're not

feeling drunk, you are like,

Wait, I don't feel drunk, like what's happening?

All of a sudden I'm walking back to the bathroom.

No one's looking at me.

I'm like thinking I'm gonna find love

the first day come out, not happening,

and I literally throw up in the coat check

on top of people's jackets.

Whenever I tell the story,

it feels like I made the story up.

But then I ask my friends like, This happened, right?

They always remind me that yes, it happened,

and we got kicked out of the bar.

Why am I like this?

If you wanna see a drag show in Toronto,

my favorite place to see drag is Crews & Tangos.

It has special pop star energy to it.

Woody's is giving like cabaret,

ooh energy.

There's also an amazing drag brunch

at the Drake Hotel with Miss Moco.

That's iconic if you wanna get lit on mimosas and caesars.

So what else do we have in Toronto? Let me look.

Lemme look at this map.

Oh, the CN Tower.

You know the CN Tower is right, I think it's here.

Wait, you don't know the story.

I was dumped on top of the CN Tower once.

It was traumatic.

Imagine being dumped on top of the CN Tower,

and having to take a 15 minute elevator down.

They say to find yourself,

you need to sit in your discomfort.

I found myself by the time I got down to the ground.

So that's where the CN Tower is.

They have like the Ripley's Aquarium.

That's where the Rogers Centre is.

That used to be called the Sky Dome.

That's where I saw Beyonce two nights

in a row and blacked out.

And I was sick for an entire week,

because I was having Beyonce withdrawal.

Okay, Casa Loma I love, 'cause I shot a music video there.

My first one for Cake,

and I was the first ever drag queen to shoot

a music video in Casa Loma history.

I'm the queen of the castle.

I had to beg them to shoot it there.

They were like, Do you have $20,000?

I was like, I have a big dream.

I convinced them.

And on to the next one.

[upbeat music]

Baby food, it means something that's very easy or soft.

You would hear it in a casual conversation

about something that is so easy,

like, I'm going to win drag race.

That's baby food dog.

That's how they would say it.

Oh my God, I love cheese.

Cheesed means mad, upset.

Yo dog, I'm cheesed.

I say that all the time 'cause oftentimes I am cheesed.

Next, I guess I don't need this anymore, do I?

Bye, bye. I'll miss you.

Marved, I love this. Who wrote this?

Usually it's like poutine and bonjour and maple syrup.

This is some deep Toronto history.

I don't even know what this means, it's so Toronto.

The Six, of course, 'cause that's what

Drake has coined Toronto

and that's what we call it.

The Six, 'cause 416 is an area code and that's why.

The Six. [paper rustling]

[gasps] Tdot.

Toronto, T dot, O dot. Uh huh.

Tdot, we're going to that Tdot this weekend.

Oh yeah, I wanna be fast about this.

I wanna be rapid fire,

but this is fucked up.

That you don't know what a toque is.

It's a hat, it's a beanie, it's winter.

I'm so shocked that you don't know what that is.

Am I offended?

Damn, America has a problem.

[paper rustling]

Loonie Toonie. [chuckles]

This is what we call our dollar, dollar and two dollar.

They're coins, we don't have ones like you do in America.

When we're doing drag in Canada

people just chuck loonies at us. [laughs]

They don't.

I think it happened once and we have Timmies.

Okay, Tim Morton's is an amazing food chain in Canada.

I think there's some in the US now.

We call it Timmies for short,

because we're like, you know, we're that culture.

[upbeat music]

The best way to get to know a city like Toronto

is through its culture.

So I am going to introduce you to some famous people

from Toronto you may not know already.

Up first my baby daddy, Drizzy.

That's right, I love you baby.

He means a lot to Toronto,

because he keeps talking about being from Toronto.

It's like the same way that I keep talking about

how I'm a pop star icon diva.

It's like he just manifested Toronto being the best

and people believe it now.

So, The Six.

Pretty sexy. I think he likes me.

Shh, don't tell you one.

Next up, who do we got?

Oh, Dan Levy.

You know I used to intern at MTV Canada

when he was hosting the after show,

and I had to get him his coffee.

That's that. He was nice to me.

I think he like had a soft spot for me 'cause I was gay.

[paper rustling]

Oh, Nina Dobrev, I love her.

She's so smart.

She acted in The Vampire Diaries.

She was on Degrassi,

and then she opened up a wine business

or a vodka business or some kinda business.

And just like acts whenever she wants,

and is super rich.

What a smart girl.

See people from Toronto, they're smart.

Being a Degrassi icon like Nina Dobrev

or Drake, it is so tied into Toronto culture.

There's a street, you know, that's where they used

to film it and it's such a cheesy show,

but it's so ingrained in our day to day.

You know, we're happy to see our stars

grow into bigger stars from Degrassi.

So congrats, Nina. You're rich and famous.

Look, we're talking about you.

[paper rustling]

Oh, Scarlet BoBo, crazy ass bitch.

I literally did drag for the first time

at her open stage show.

So she is responsible for this mess.

[gasps] Oh my God, my queen, Tynomi Banks, I love her.

The reason why I have my tagline, What's my name,

is because people used to mistake me for her all the time.

And I was like, Well that seems a little bit racist.

So instead I would make everybody say Priyanka

back to me so they would know it's me.

Oh, Eve 6,000 France icon, beautiful, amazing.

She painted me for the first ever pageant that I won.

Miss Crews & Tangos 2018, baby.

Aurora Matrix. Wow.

You know when you like they say like you feel old

when she was like, The reason why I started drag is

'cause I used to watch you do drag.

I said, Oh, shit

Mama's getting old, time to get a facelift.

♪ I'm gonna win, baby ♪

Oh Jada, oh my God.

Jada Shada Hudson, everybody.

I love her so much.

Jada is one of the best performers in Toronto, period.

Crazy. And we always go to eat at a lot

of restaurants in Toronto and it's the best.

Thank you so much, Conde Nast Traveler.

I hope that you visit Toronto.

If you do see me there, be sure to say hi.

I love you all.

Mwah. Bye. [light upbeat music]