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Exotic seafood’s strong taste acquiring reputation (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

trepang

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'reputation' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.

'exotic seafood's strong taste acquiring' is the wordplay.
'exotic seafood' becomes 'rep' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'strong taste' becomes 'tang' (I've seen this before).
'acquiring' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rep' inserted within 'tang' is 'TREPANG'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for trepang that I've seen before include "Sea cucumber" , "Chinese food" , "Chinese delicacy" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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