Sailor’s first of us tucking into fruit and rare food (7)
I believe the answer is:
pabulum
'rare food' is the definition.
'pabulum' can be an answer for 'food' (pabulum is a kind of food). I'm not sure about the 'rare' bit.
'sailor's first of us tucking into fruit' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'first of us' becomes 'u' (1st letter of 'us').
'tucking into' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'fruit' becomes 'plum' (plum is a kind of fruit).
'ab'+'u'='abu'
'abu' placed within 'plum' is 'PABULUM'.
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pabulum that I've seen before include "Uninspiring food for thought" , "Insipid (mental) fare" , "Fruit" , "(Insipid) food for mind" , "Bland entertainment" .)