Meal deal might be used by him, if served up with drink shortly beforehand (4,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
fish and chips
'meal' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both things that one consumes for nourishment as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'deal might be used by him if served up with drink shortly beforehand' is the wordplay.
'deal might be used by him' becomes 'chips' (deal is a type of wood - chips means a carpenter).
'served up' says the letters should be written backwards (in a down clue, going upwards).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'drink shortly' becomes 'shand' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'beforehand' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'if' written backwards gives 'fi'.
'fi' put next to 'shand' is 'fishand'.
'chips' put after 'fishand' is 'FISH AND CHIPS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fish and chips that I've seen before include "Popular British meal" , "Food traditionally served in newspaper" , "Traditional British takeaway food" , "Fried dish" , "Fast food" .)