Crossword Genius

Strain to bite around hard bit of food (4,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

pine nut

'hard bit of food' is the definition.
(pine nuts are hard)

'strain to bite around' is the wordplay.
'strain' becomes 'tune' (synonyms).
'to bite' becomes 'nip' (nipping is a kind of biting).
'around' says the letters should be written backwards.
'tune'+'nip'='tunenip'
'tunenip' in reverse letter order is 'PINE NUT'.

(Another definition for pine nut that I've seen is " Producer of evergreen".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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