Crossword Genius

Basic food registered in basic hotel, say (5,3,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

bread and butter

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'basic' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'food registered in basic hotel say' is the wordplay.
'food' becomes 'bread' (bread is a type of food).
'registered in basic hotel' becomes 'andb' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'say' becomes 'utter' (to utter something is to speak or say it).
'bread'+'andb'+'utter'='BREAD-AND-BUTTER'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for bread and butter that I've seen before include "Living" , "Ordinary" , "Main source of income" , "earned?" , "basic course" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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