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Tropical fruit in starter of Arborio rice mostly consumed by Kitty (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

apricot

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'tropical fruit' is the definition.
'apricot' can be an answer for 'fruit' (apricot is a kind of fruit). I'm not certain of the 'tropical' bit.

'starter of arborio rice mostly consumed by kitty' is the wordplay.
'starter of' says to take the initial letters.
'mostly' means to remove the last letter.
'consumed by' indicates putting letters inside.
'kitty' becomes 'pot' ('pot' can be a synonym of 'kitty').
The first letter of 'arborio' is 'a'.
'rice' with its final letter taken off is 'ric'.
'ric' going within 'pot' is 'pricot'.
'a'+'pricot'='APRICOT'

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for apricot that I've seen before include "Juicy stone-fruit, orange-pink when ripe" , "Small, peach-like fruit" , "Yellow fruit" , "shade" , "Fruit from a tropic" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.
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