Bread men sent over by Western Union essentially (4)

I believe the answer is:

roti

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

'bread' is the definition.
(roti is a type of bread)

'men sent over by western union essentially' is the wordplay.
'men' becomes 'OR' (military abbreviation for other ranks).
'sent over' is a reversal indicator.
'by western' becomes 't' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'essentially' indicates the central letters.
The middle of 'union' is 'i'.
'or' back-to-front is 'ro'.
'ro'+'t'+'i'='ROTI'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for roti that I've seen before include "Indian flat round bread" , "Indian bread (not naan)" , "Indian flatbread" , "spicy sandwich" , "Indian bread cooked on a griddle" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.