Pacific-Specific

The West Coast is different, and if you don’t believe it, just try cooking fish from a book written for East Coasters, which is to say almost all of them. There are different varieties here and they cook in different ways--even if they sometimes go by the same names. Our soles are mostly different types of halibut and our red snapper is really only one of dozens of types of rock cod.

That’s why Jay Harlow’s “West Coast Seafood” (Sasquatch Books, $23.95) is such a blessing. It’s a revision and expansion of a similar book Harlow wrote with Berkeley buddies Isaac Cronin and Paul Johnson in the early ‘80s (Harlow was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle; Johnson is the fish purveyor to Chez Panisse).

This one is almost guaranteed to wind up as well-thumbed and sauce-flecked as the last. “West Coast Seafood” takes an encyclopedic approach to the fish found in the Pacific. It walks you through varieties, giving specific types and Latin names. Then you get a good description of the fish and its habits and tips on shopping and seasonality. Finally, there are recipes, including an appealing mix of Asian and Mediterranean influences that somehow are adventurous without ever straying over the line of good taste.