If a restaurant spends five days preparing a single dish, the results better be good. They certainly are at Arc Food & Libations, a live fire restaurant from chef Noah Blom and Marín Howarth in Costa Mesa’s OC Mix that invests five days to produce serious Pig.

On my recent four-stop food tour of The OC Mix, Blom’s understated Pig ($16) yielded my favorite bites of the night. The Orange County native marinates pork shoulder in buttermilk and roasts the tender results overnight in the coals of his wood-burning oven. Blom, who reserves the “sparkle and crack” of orange wood for his grill, prefers almond wood for his impressive oven. The oven’s flame-spitting mouth is also where he finishes the pork, which sports a winning sear. Big chunks of juicy shoulder rest on a bed of creamy turtle beans that Blom accents with chives and crème fraiche. The finishing touches are crisp parsley and a maple reduction, which adds subtle sweetness to a savory dish. Even better: the cast iron serving vessel, which is standard practice at Arc, arrives on a stylish metal owl.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.