Local food given to contrary child at hotel (4)
I believe the answer is:
nosh
'local food' is the definition.
'nosh' can be an answer for 'food' (nosh is a kind of food). I am not sure about the 'local' bit.
'contrary child at hotel' is the wordplay.
'contrary' is a reversal indicator.
'child' becomes 'son' (male child).
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet).
'son' back-to-front is 'nos'.
'nos'+'h'='NOSH'
'given to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nosh that I've seen before include "Slangy food or meal" , "cuisine" , "Food (sl.)" , "A slang meal" , "(Eat) a snack" .)