In middle of eating, rage about rabbit as food item (8)
I believe the answer is:
teriyaki
'food item' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'in middle of eating rage about rabbit' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'middle of' means to look at the middle letters.
'rage about' becomes 'eri' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'rabbit' becomes 'yak'.
The middle of 'eating' is 'ti'.
'eri'+'yak'='eriyak'
'ti' enclosing 'eriyak' is 'TERIYAKI'.
'as' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for teriyaki that I've seen before include "Basted and broiled" , "Japanese cooking using sweet soy sauce" , "Japanese dish of beef, chicken or seafood, marinated in soy sauce" , "Oriental food" , "Japanese dish of cooked meat or seafood, marinated in soy sauce" .)