Eats mint on salad, for instance, with a slice of the big apple? (8)

'mint on salad for instance with a slice of the big apple?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'eats' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'eats' is 'east' which is within the answer.
The remaining letters 'side' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?