I start to eat, tucking into fish, highly-spiced? (5)

I believe the answer is:

fiery

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'highly-spiced?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'i start to eat tucking into fish' is the wordplay.
'start to' suggests taking the first letters.
'tucking into' indicates putting letters inside.
'fish' becomes 'fry' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'eat' is 'e'.
'i'+'e'='ie'
'ie' placed within 'fry' is 'FIERY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fiery that I've seen before include "Explosive (e.g. temper)" , "Easily angered" , "irascible" , "Choleric" , "Quick-tempered" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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