meat and potatoes

the central part or aspect of something under consideration <an article that never gets into the meat and potatoes of a solution to the city's rising crime rate> Synonyms bottom line, bull's-eye, centerpiece, core, essence, gist, heart, kernel, keynote, meat, crux, net, nub, nubbin, nucleus, pith, pivot, point, root, sumRelated Words course, direction, drift, tenor; body, content, substance; hypothesis, proposition, purport, subject, theme, thesis