One year, following winless season, American kid fails to finish course in Japan (8)
I believe the answer is:
teriyaki
'course in japan' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both things that one consumes for nourishment as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'one year following winless season american kid fails to finish' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'year' is 'erya' which is present in the remaining letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for teriyaki that I've seen before include "Japanese dish of cooked meat or seafood, marinated in soy sauce" , "Japanese cooking using sweet soy sauce" , "Basted and broiled" , "Oriental food" , "Japanese dish of beef, chicken or seafood, marinated in soy sauce" .)