The Essential Oyster is the definitive book for oyster-lovers everywhere, featuring stunning portraits, tasting notes, and backstories of all the top oysters, as well as recipes from America's top oyster chefs and a guide to the best oyster bars. Spotlighting about a third of the more than three hundred different oysters in North America today--the unique, the historically significant, the flat-out yummiest--The Essential Oyster introduces the oyster culture and history of every region of North America, as well as overseas. There is no coastline from British Columbia to Baja, from New Iberia to New Brunswick, that isn't producing great oysters.  The Essential Oyster will help you find the best--and help you to cherish them better. That is what's captured--and celebrated--in the 304 pages of this hardcover, high quality, full color book.