No 13653, Tuesday 06 Sep 2022, Incognito

Solution to 25A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS

7   A king in the south east gets drink (4) SAKE {S{A}{K}E}

8   After drink, in a tavern at first with a couple of bridge players, thinks carefully (9) RUMINATES {RUM}{IN}{A}{Ta,,,n}{E}{S}

10 Used to be a basic ingredient, for starters, and condiment (6) WASABI {WAS}{A}{Ba..c}{In...t}

11 Short sister grabs neck awkwardly at top of spine resulting in ailment (8) SICKNESS {SI{NECK*}Ster}{Spine}

12 Real scam on island (8) CONCRETE {CON}{CRETE}

14 Foolish person from Pakistani Twitter (6) NITWIT [T]

16 Wrongly made me a dish of boiled soy bean (7) EDAMAME*

18 Resin held by monarch is missing (7) LACKING {LAC}{KING}

21 Like bird's behind (6) ASTERN {AS}{TERN}

23 Near insect behind one parked pushcart in the beginning (8) APPROACH {ROACH}<=>{A}{Pa...d}{Pu...t}

25 Best quality container returned... not Chinese! (8) ?O?N?T?H (Addendum - TOPNOTCH {POT<=}{NOT}{CH} - See comments)

27 Nurse endlessly one fibrous connective tissue (6) TENDON {TEND}{ONe}

29 Photographer arrived with Nobel laureate (9) CAMERAMAN {CAME}{RAMAN}

30 Sir, I returned flower (4) IRIS<=

DOWN

1   Rogue girl associate and spy follow Virginia (8) VAGABOND {G}{A}{BOND}<=>{VA}

2   Horribly fat after devouring European cheese (4) FETA {F{E}TA*}

3   US rice cooked in voyage (6) CRUISE*

4   Accumulated in Panama's sedimentation (7) AMASSED [T]

5   An acting commanding officer at National Defence Academy is a snake (8) ANACONDA {AN}{A}{CO}{NDA}

6   Floor star hugging model (4) STUN {S{T}UN}

9   Rice preparation from Takamatsu, Shikoku (5) SUSHI [T]

13 Count motorcades arranged in absence of winding roads (5)  COMTE MOTorCadEs*

15 Kyoto is redeveloped? Capital! (5) TOKYO*

17 Financial commentary composed in absence of Chief Minister (8)  MONETARY  cOmMENTARY*

19 Diseased crone's initial infection shows localised death of cells (8) NECROSIS {CRONES*}{In...n}{Sh..s}

20 Simi consumes product of incineration in dish made of thinly sliced flesh (7) SASHIMI {S{ASH}IMI}

22 Scot travelled around India showing indifference to emotion (5) STOIC {STO{I}C*}

24 Clear right to use invention (6) PATENT [DD]

26 Terribly mean way to address a person (4) NAME*

28 Pin down leaders of North American Indian litigants (4) NAIL Acrostic

Reference List

King = K, Bridge players = E,S, Chinese = CH, Girl = G, Associate = A, Virginia = VA, European = E, Acting = A, Commanding Officer = CO, Model = T, India = I