Everything 'Drag Race' Star Queen Priyanka Loves About Toronto
Today, Drag Race winner and HBO’s We’re Here host, Priyanka joins Condé Nast Traveler to share her favorite things about Toronto. From all-dressed Ruffles to the legacy of Degrassi, Priyanka talks about everything that makes her proud to be a Torontonian.HBO original series We’re Here is now streaming on Max.
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00:00An all dress chip will change your life.
00:02It is literally what it says it is, all dress.
00:05It has ketchup.
00:07You don't have ketchup chips in America either, do you?
00:11No wonder all of you are so miserable.
00:14Hi everybody, it's me Priyanka,
00:16icon, pop star, drag, diva, legend,
00:19and I'm gonna show you everything
00:20that makes me so proud to be from Toronto.
00:23We are gonna try some food and drink,
00:25look at some places to go,
00:27teach you some slang,
00:28and also look at some icons
00:30all from my beautiful hometown of Toronto.
00:44If you're visiting Toronto,
00:45here are some foods that you must try.
00:47Is this a butter tart?
00:48Okay.
00:50Research if you Google Canadian foods.
00:53Butter tart, baby.
00:54I don't even know why a butter tart is a Canadian thing,
00:57but I like butter,
00:58so I would say you have to try this.
01:01Okay.
01:03Mm, oh shit.
01:07Yo.
01:08I love being Canadian.
01:09For those of you who don't know what a butter tart is,
01:11it's a flaky, beautiful pastry that you get at a bakery.
01:14I keep forgetting that they are a Canadian thing
01:16because I feel like how do you not live your life
01:18without a butter tart, you know?
01:19I was very shocked to hear
01:20that y'all don't have all dress chips here.
01:24An all dress chip will change your life.
01:26It is literally what it says it is, all dress.
01:29So we take salt and vinegar,
01:31sour cream and onion, ketchup.
01:33It has all the dresses in it.
01:35You get to watch me eat this.
01:40Baby.
01:40Oh, and barbecue.
01:42Barbecue, salt and vinegar, ketchup,
01:44sour cream and onion all together as one.
01:47Mm.
01:48Oh my God.
01:50Right?
01:50Did you try them yet?
01:51Okay, if there's one thing that I love about Toronto,
01:53it's all the amazing, amazing, amazing
01:55West Indian restaurants there are.
01:57And this is a roti.
02:01Oh my God.
02:04This is amazing.
02:05But you could tell this is Trinidadian,
02:06there's a difference.
02:07You could tell it's Trinidadian
02:08because of the spices that they used.
02:10It's not that it's bad.
02:11It's just that it tastes different to a Guyanese.
02:14But honestly, these Trinidadian people
02:15got their shit together.
02:17The foundation and the bones of Toronto, I feel, are.
02:20West Indian food.
02:21Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I'm so hungry.
02:23Oh my God, I love this.
02:25This is the best day of my life.
02:26Okay, now we're gonna move on to the next one.
02:28Last but certainly not least, the Nanaimo bar.
02:32Okay, Nanaimo is a place in British Columbia
02:34and they invented this bar.
02:36When I used to work in kids' television,
02:37they flew me from Toronto all the way to Vancouver
02:41to learn how to make a Nanaimo bar
02:43in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
02:46Okay, wow.
02:51Mm.
02:53This is good.
02:55Mm.
02:56Okay, so there's like a layer of hard chocolate on top
02:58and then there's this cream stuff.
02:59I forget what's in the cream stuff.
03:00It's honestly amazing.
03:02Full of sugar, so be careful.
03:04This was delicious, but we gotta keep going
03:07because I will be eating this all day.
03:12If you're coming to Toronto
03:14and you wanna get a little bit lit,
03:15here are some drinks you must try.
03:17When I try to be a straight girl at the club,
03:21you have to get a beer because like, what are you doing?
03:23La Bat Blue.
03:25This is as Canadian as beer gets, okay?
03:27Everybody cheers to you and yours.
03:29This is the most Canadian thing I've ever done.
03:34La Bat Blue is like discount beer.
03:36That's what it gives, so that's like as Canadian.
03:38That's like me on a first date.
03:39I'm a cheap date.
03:41But the headliner, okay, listen, listen, listen, listen,
03:43listen, listen, if you do not know what a Caesar is,
03:47get out of my face.
03:47It's not a Bloody Mary.
03:49I don't give a fuck about Mary.
03:51Kill her.
03:51Clamato Juice.
03:53Did you put Clamato Juice in this?
03:55It better not be tomato juice.
03:56I'm not drinking pasta sauce, bitch.
03:57If you don't know what Clamato Juice is,
03:59clam juice and tomato juice mixed into one.
04:01I know what you're thinking.
04:02I thought the same thing until you have this.
04:07People call it a brunch drink.
04:09No, honey, I am having this breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
04:11I'm on the dance floor at the club with my Caesar leg.
04:16This is my favorite drink in the whole wide world.
04:18Cross the border and just try one of these.
04:19That's it.
04:20That's all you gotta do.
04:21The best of the best.
04:22Love you, bitch.
04:25Here are some of my favorite things
04:27that I like to do in Toronto.
04:30Oh my God, I broke it.
04:32Okay, here we go.
04:33This is where the partying is happening.
04:35Okay, hon?
04:36This is where I had my first hookup with a boy.
04:39The first time I came out to my friend,
04:41she was like, let's go to the gay bar.
04:43I was so nervous.
04:44So we go to Church Street.
04:45We go to a bar.
04:46I'm pounding back shots of tequila,
04:48but you know when you're so anxious,
04:49you're not feeling drunk?
04:50You're like, wait, I don't feel drunk.
04:51Like, what's happening?
04:52All of a sudden, I'm walking back to the bathroom.
04:55No one's looking at me.
04:56I'm like, thinking I'm gonna find love the first day,
04:58come out, not happening.
05:00And I literally throw up in the coat check
05:03on top of people's jackets.
05:05Whenever I tell the story,
05:06it feels like I made the story up,
05:07but then I ask my friends, like, this happened, right?
05:09They always remind me that, yes, it happened,
05:10and we got kicked out of the bar.
05:13Why am I like this?
05:16If you wanna see a drag show in Toronto,
05:17my favorite place to see drag is Cruise and Tango's.
05:20It has special pop star energy to it.
05:23Woody's is giving, like, cabaret energy.
05:28There's also an amazing drag brunch at the Drake Hotel
05:31with Miss Mosu, that's iconic
05:32if you wanna get lit on mimosas and Caesars.
05:35So what else do we have in Toronto?
05:36Let me look.
05:37Let me look at this map.
05:39Oh, the CN Tower.
05:41You know, the CN Tower is right, I think it's here.
05:45Wait, you don't know this story.
05:47I was dumped on top of the CN Tower once.
05:49It was traumatic.
05:50Imagine being dumped on top of the CN Tower
05:51and having to take a 15-minute elevator down.
05:54They say to find yourself,
05:55you need to sit in your discomfort.
05:56I found myself by the time I got down to the ground.
05:58So that's where the CN Tower is.
06:00They have, like, the Ripley's Aquarium.
06:01That's where the Rogers Center is
06:03that used to be called the Sky Dome.
06:04That's where I saw Beyonce two nights in a row
06:06and blacked out and I was sick for an entire week
06:08because I was having Beyonce withdrawal.
06:10Okay, Castle Loma, I love,
06:12because I shot a music video there.
06:14My first one for Cake.
06:15That was the first ever drag queen
06:16to shoot a music video in Castle Loma history.
06:18I'm the queen of the castle!
06:20I had to beg them to shoot it there.
06:22They were like, do you have $20,000?
06:23I was like, I have a big dream.
06:25I convinced them.
06:26And on to the next one.
06:31Baby food.
06:32It means something that's very easy or soft.
06:35You would hear it in a casual conversation
06:36about something that is so easy,
06:38like, I'm going to win drag race.
06:42That's baby food, dog.
06:44That's how they would say it.
06:45Oh my God, I love cheese.
06:47Cheesed means mad, upset.
06:50Yo dog, I'm cheese.
06:52I say that all the time because oftentimes I am cheese.
06:55Next!
06:57I guess I don't need this anymore, do I?
06:59Bye bye, I'll miss you.
07:00Marved?
07:01I love this.
07:02Who wrote this?
07:03Usually it's like poutine and bonjour and maple syrup.
07:07This is some deep Toronto history.
07:09I don't even know what this means, it's so Toronto.
07:13The six, of course.
07:15That's what Drake has coined Toronto.
07:18And that's what we call it, the six,
07:19because 416 is an area code, and that's why.
07:23The six!
07:26T-dot?
07:27Toronto, T-dot-O-dot, uh-huh.
07:31T-dot, we're going to T-dot this weekend.
07:34Oh, yeah, I want to be fast about this.
07:36I want to be rapid fire, but this is fucked up.
07:39Like, you don't know what a toque is.
07:40It's a hat, it's a beanie, it's winter.
07:43I'm so shocked that you don't know what that is.
07:44Am I offended?
07:46Damn, America has a problem.
07:48Looney Tooney.
07:50This is what we call our dollar, dollar, and two-dollar.
07:52They're coins.
07:53You don't have ones like you do in America.
07:55Whenever we're doing drag in Canada,
07:57people just chuck loonies at us.
07:59They don't.
08:00I think it happened once.
08:02And we have Timmy's, okay?
08:04Tim Hortons is an amazing food chain in Canada.
08:06I think there's some in the U.S. now.
08:07We call it Timmy's for short because we're like,
08:09you know, we're that culture.
08:15The best way to get to know a city like Toronto
08:17is through its culture.
08:18So I am going to introduce you
08:20to some famous people from Toronto
08:22you may not know already.
08:24Up first, my baby daddy, Drizzy.
08:28That's right.
08:29I love you, baby.
08:31He means a lot to Toronto
08:32because he keeps talking about being from Toronto.
08:34It's like the same way that I keep talking
08:36about how I'm a pop star icon diva.
08:38It's like he just manifested Toronto being the best
08:41and people believe it now.
08:42So, the six.
08:45Very sexy.
08:46I think he likes me.
08:47I'll tell you what.
08:48Next up, who do we got?
08:50Oh, Gail Levy.
08:52You know, I used to intern at MTV Canada
08:55when he was hosting the After Show
08:56and I had to get him his coffee.
08:57That's that.
08:58He was nice to me.
08:59I think he like had a soft spot for me
09:00because I was gay.
09:03Oh, Nina Debrev.
09:04I love her.
09:05She's so smart.
09:06She acted in the Vampire Diaries.
09:07She was on Degrassi.
09:08And then she opened up a wine business
09:10or a vodka business or some kind of business
09:11and just like does acts whenever she wants.
09:13It's super rich.
09:14What a smart girl.
09:16See, people from Toronto, they're smart.
09:18Being a Degrassi icon like Nina Debrev or Drake,
09:21it is so tied into Toronto culture.
09:23There's a street, you know,
09:24that's where they used to film it.
09:26And it's such a cheesy show,
09:28but it's so ingrained in our day-to-day.
09:32You know, we're happy to see our stars
09:33grow into bigger stars from Degrassi.
09:35So, congrats, Nina.
09:37You're rich and famous.
09:38Look, we're talking about you.
09:40Oh, Scarlett BowBow.
09:43Crazy ass bitch.
09:44I literally did drag for the first time
09:46at her open stage show.
09:48So she is responsible for this mess.
09:51Oh my God.
09:52My queen, Tynomi Banks.
09:54I love her.
09:54The reason why I have my tagline,
09:56what's my name?
09:57Is because people used to mistake me for her all the time.
10:00And I was like, well, that seems a little bit racist.
10:02So instead I would make everybody say Priyanka back to me
10:05so they would know it's me.
10:08Oh, U6000.
10:10Trans icon.
10:11Beautiful, amazing.
10:12She painted me for the first ever pageant that I won.
10:15Miss Cruising Tango 2018, baby.
10:17Aurora Matrix.
10:18Wow.
10:19You know when you like, they say like, you feel old when?
10:21She was like, the reason why I started drag
10:23is because I used to watch you do drag.
10:24And I said, oh shit.
10:27Mama's getting old.
10:29Time to get a facelift.
10:30I'm a winner, baby.
10:31Oh, Jada.
10:32Oh my God.
10:33Jada Shada Hudson, everybody.
10:35I love her so much.
10:36Jada is one of the best performers in Toronto, period.
10:39Crazy.
10:40We always go to eat at a lot of restaurants in Toronto
10:42and it's the best.
10:43Thank you so much, Condé Nast Traveler.
10:46I hope that you visit Toronto.
10:48If you do see me there, be sure to say hi.
10:50I love you all.
10:52Bye.