Duelos y quebrantes

Question

What exactly are 'duelos y quebrantes'? They clearly are part of don Quijote's weekly menu, and sound like a fancy name for a simple dish. But what does it consist of?

... quebrantos. - cogumela, Jan 28, 2012

Answer 1

This is a popular dish:

chorizo, jamón, tocino, huevos, aceite y sal

Thanks. - Castor77, Jan 28, 2012

¡qué horrible! :p - billygoat, Jan 28, 2012

Well, Billygoat, I can think of a few British traditionals that sound ( and probably taste) at least twice as horrible. ;-) - Castor77, Jan 29, 2012

Sounds like a challenge to me ;-) come on then, lets have them................ - billygoat, Jan 29, 2012

@Castor: "Toad on a hole", "spotted dick", to name but two... Oh, and let's not forget the Scottish haggis.. :-P - Gekkosan, Jan 29, 2012

Answer 2

Wikipedia has an entry that I found interesting:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duelos_y_quebrantos

En el libro de Don Quijote de la Mancha aparece ya en los primeros párrafos de la obra, cuando hace una descripción de lo que come Alonso Quijano (Don Quijote) cada día de la semana: al llegar al sábado, menciona «duelos y quebrantos los sábados»; tal y como puede verse indicaba lo muy «cristiano» que comía, ya que la mayoría de estos ingredientes (procedentes de la carne de cerdo) eran no halal (haram) para los musulmanes ni kosher para los judíos.

Answer 3

Duelo can be a duel and Don Quijote was always challenging obscure things to a fight so I would suggest that this is the meaning. Quebranto is damage or harm so this could be as a result of all the duelling he is doing.

I reckon the choice of meal is referentially playing on the double significance in a traditionally authorly manner

Answer 4

So there's more than meets the eye at first sight when this dish is mentioned as his favourite one. Quite interesting information.

Answer 5

Duelo can be a duel and Don Quijote was always challenging obscure things to a fight so I would suggest that this is the meaning.

Quebranto is damage or harm so this could be as a result of all the duelling he is doing.

No no. I'm quite confident that it refers to food. This is made very plain in the context, a list of the food on don Quichote's weekly menu. - Castor77, Jan 28, 2012