COOKBOOK WATCH

London chef Vatcharin Bhumichtir’s newest cookbook, “Vatch’s Southeast Asian Cookbook” (St. Martins Press, $26.95), appears at first to be a coffee table book to be admired mostly for its beautiful photos. But Bhumichtir’s accounts of his travels in Thailand, Cambodia and the other Southeast Asian countries covered in the book are good reading, and the recipes--for instance, Laotian mok pla (fish curry steamed in a banana leaf) and Burmese seik-tha hin (lamb with mint leaves)--are ones that most curious cooks will want to try.