Setelah air panas siap, baru kami mengukus udang dan jamur di dapur kecil apartemen.

Setelah means after. It introduces a time clause:

• Setelah air panas siap = After the hot water was ready
• baru kami mengukus udang dan jamur = only then did we steam the shrimp and mushrooms

Starting with Setelah... is very common in Indonesian when giving the background or sequence of events first.

Indonesian often leaves out the verb to be in sentences like this.

So:

• air panas siap literally looks like hot water ready
• but it means the hot water was ready or the hot water is ready, depending on context

This is normal Indonesian grammar. You do not need a separate word like is/was/am/are in many cases.

In this sentence, baru does not mean new. Here it means something like:

• only then
• not until then
• after that, and only after that

So:

• Setelah air panas siap, baru kami mengukus... = Only after the hot water was ready did we steam...

This use of baru is very common in Indonesian to emphasize sequence.

Compare:

• Kami mengukus udang. = We steamed the shrimp.
• Baru kami mengukus udang. = Only then did we steam the shrimp.

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• air panas = hot water
• dapur kecil = small kitchen

This is the normal pattern:

• noun + adjective

Examples:

• rumah besar = big house
• kopi dingin = cold coffee
• jamur segar = fresh mushrooms

So air panas is the expected word order.

Siap means ready.

So air panas siap means the hot water was ready.

Depending on context, siap can also mean:

• ready for use
• prepared
• done

In everyday Indonesian, siap is very flexible. Here it simply marks that the hot water had reached the needed state before the next action happened.

Indonesian has two common words for we:

• kami = we, but not including the listener
• kita = we, including the listener

So kami is used because the speaker is talking about their own group doing something, without including the person being spoken to.

That distinction is very important in Indonesian and often surprises English speakers, because English uses just one word, we.

The base word is kukus, which relates to steaming.
The form mengukus is the active verb form, made with the meN- prefix.

So:

• kukus = steam / steaming / the idea of steaming
• mengukus = to steam

This is a very common verb pattern in Indonesian.

Because the root begins with k, the k usually drops after meN-, giving:

• meN- + kukus → mengukus

Similar examples:

• kirim → mengirim
• kupas → mengupas
• ambil → mengambil (different pattern, since it starts with a vowel)

Indonesian nouns often do not need a special plural form when the meaning is already clear from context.

So:

• udang can mean shrimp or shrimps
• jamur can mean mushroom or mushrooms

If needed, Indonesian can show plural by reduplication:

• udang-udang
• jamur-jamur

But in a sentence like this, that is often unnecessary. The context already makes it clear that food items are being steamed.

Let’s break it down:

• di = in / at
• dapur kecil = small kitchen
• apartemen = apartment

So the whole phrase means something like:

• in the apartment’s small kitchen
• or in the small kitchen of the apartment

Indonesian often puts nouns together without words like of or apostrophe ’s.

So:

• dapur apartemen = apartment kitchen / the apartment’s kitchen

And with the adjective:

• dapur kecil apartemen = the apartment’s small kitchen

This kind of noun stacking is normal in Indonesian.

Indonesian often leaves out subjects when they are not important or not needed.

In:

• Setelah air panas siap...

the sentence focuses on the state of the hot water, not on who made it ready.

English often prefers to be more explicit, but Indonesian is comfortable being more economical when the context is clear.

The comma is natural and helpful here because the sentence begins with a subordinate time clause:

• Setelah air panas siap, ...

The comma separates the background time information from the main action.

In casual writing, punctuation in Indonesian can be somewhat flexible, but this comma is standard and makes the structure easier to read.

Yes, it could be omitted, but the nuance would change.

Compare:

• Setelah air panas siap, kami mengukus udang dan jamur... = After the hot water was ready, we steamed the shrimp and mushrooms.

• Setelah air panas siap, baru kami mengukus udang dan jamur... = Only after the hot water was ready did we steam the shrimp and mushrooms.

With baru, the sentence more strongly emphasizes that the steaming happened only after that condition was met.

No, apartemen is a loanword, ultimately from apartment.

Indonesian uses many borrowed words, especially for modern objects, buildings, technology, and formal concepts.
Even when the origin is obvious, the spelling is adapted to Indonesian spelling conventions:

• apartment → apartemen

This is very common in Indonesian vocabulary.