Turned up carrying a bit of food amid havoc, offering assistance (7)
I believe the answer is:
helpful
'turned up carrying a bit of food amid havoc offering assistance' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'turned up carrying a bit of food amid havoc' is the wordplay.
'turned' is a reversal indicator.
'carrying' is an insertion indicator.
'a bit of' says to take the initial letters.
'amid' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'havoc' becomes 'hell' (I've seen this in another clue).
The initial letter of 'food' is 'f'.
'up' going around 'f' is 'ufp'.
'ufp' backwards is 'pfu'.
'pfu' inserted inside 'hell' is 'HELPFUL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for helpful that I've seen before include "Of service or assistance" , "Of practical assistance, doing something for another" , "Obliging" , "Providing assistance" , "Of assistance, supportive" .)