Learn Turkish: Mutfak buram buram baharat kokuyor muydu? - Was the kitchen smelling strongly of spices?

Buram buram is an ikileme (reduplication) used to describe things that waft, billow, or radiate outward. It acts as an adverb here, telling us how the kitchen smells. It means the smell is intense, strong, and filling the entire air.

Does the word buram mean anything by itself?

Historically, it meant a swirl of smoke or vapor, but today it is rarely used alone. You will almost exclusively see it doubled as buram buram, and it is typically only paired with verbs about smelling (kokmak) or sweating heavily (terlemek).

The English translation says "spices". Why doesn't baharat have the plural suffix -lar?

In Turkish, when you refer to a general, uncountable category of things rather than specific individual items, the noun stays in its singular form. Baharat kokuyor means it has a general "spice" smell, which translates most naturally to "smelling of spices" in English.

How do the suffixes in kokuyor muydu create the meaning "was smelling"?

This is a past continuous question. It combines the verb root kok- (smell) with the present continuous suffix -uyor (is smelling). Then we add the question particle mu, a buffer -y-, and the past tense suffix -du. Together, the combination -uyor muydu means "was it [doing the action]?"