Mufarakeh: Potatoes and Eggs, the Jordanian Way

Mufarakeh at Khashoka is a $8 skillet of potatoes and eggs, a plain Jordanian breakfast plate built on the same sourcing philosophy behind the rest of the menu.

By Muhammad Albakri · July 20, 20263 min read

What is mufarakeh?

Mufarakeh (مفركة) is potatoes and eggs, cooked together in one skillet until the potatoes turn soft at the center and browned at the edges, then finished with eggs scrambled in among them. At Khashoka in Richardson, it's $8, listed under the home-made pans on the menu.

It's not a dish built to impress anyone. There's no lamb, no jameed, no folded pastry. It's the kind of plate a Jordanian home cook makes on a weekday morning because the potatoes were already in the kitchen and the eggs were already in the fridge. That plainness is exactly why people order it: it tastes like something someone's mother would make, not something a restaurant invented to stand out.

Why does Khashoka's version stand out?

Speaking with NBC DFW for a story on DFW restaurants prepping for the World Cup, Khashoka's owner said, "Ninety percent of all our spices, the olive oil, the sesame sauce, everything comes all the way from Jordan." Produce and meat, meanwhile, are sourced locally and fresh. Mufarakeh sits right at that line. The potatoes and eggs are local. The olive oil that goes into the pan, and the salt and spice it's finished with, are part of that pantry that traces back to Jordan.

A dish this simple has nowhere to hide. There's no sauce to cover a shortcut and no protein doing the heavy lifting. If the potatoes are cut wrong, or the eggs go in too early and turn rubbery, or the oil is thin and flavorless, you taste it immediately. Sourcing decent olive oil and cooking the potatoes through instead of rushing them is the entire difference between a mufarakeh worth ordering and one that isn't.

Every order is cooked to order, not pulled from a steam tray and reheated. That matters more for a dish like this than almost any other item on the menu, because a resting skillet of potatoes and eggs loses its texture fast. The potatoes go soft and grey. The eggs turn tough. Cooked fresh, the potatoes still have some resistance at the center and the eggs stay loose enough to coat them.

How to order mufarakeh at Khashoka

Mufarakeh is a single plate meant for one person, ordered the same way as anything else on the menu. Pickup runs through Tabit, with an estimated prep time of about 35 minutes, or you can sit down and order it in the restaurant. Check the full Khashoka menu for the rest of the breakfast and home-made pans section alongside it.

Khashoka is at 1057 S Sherman St, Richardson TX. Hours are Sunday through Thursday 9AM to 10PM, and Friday and Saturday 9AM to 11PM. If you'd rather call ahead, the number is (469) 277-7477.

One spelling note, since it comes up in search: the ordering system spells it "Mufaraca," but the menu page spells it "Mufarakeh." That's the spelling used here and the one to look for on the menu.

Mufarakeh as part of a Jordanian breakfast spread

The kitchen opens at 9AM daily and serves breakfast and lunch items straight through the day, so mufarakeh isn't confined to a narrow morning window. On its own it's a full plate for one person. Ordered alongside something like Jordanian labneh, it turns into a small breakfast spread built the way a Jordanian kitchen table actually works: a few plain, direct dishes set out together rather than one composed entrée.

That's the same sourcing logic that shows up everywhere else on the menu, just scaled down to a single skillet. The potatoes and eggs are ordinary and local. The oil and spice behind them trace back to Jordan. Nothing about mufarakeh asks to be the centerpiece of the table, and it isn't trying to be. It's the plate you order because it's what you'd cook for yourself, if you had the time.