Scoff eating spicy starter from Orient (4)
I believe the answer is:
east
'orient' is the definition.
('East' can be a synonym of 'orient')
'scoff eating spicy starter' is the wordplay.
'scoff' becomes 'eat' (I've seen this before).
'eating' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'starter' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'spicy' is 's'.
'eat' enclosing 's' is 'EAST'.
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for east that I've seen before include "Ninety degree bearing" , "Bridge player" , "An opponent of North" , "One regularly holding hands" , "the way the Wise Men came from" .)