This is a carpincho.

I actually didn´t even know exactly what this animal looked like before googling it right now. It´s kind of cute!

The capybara (as its called in english) is essentially a large river hamster. Everyone explained it to me in spanish as a large river rat.  I honestly felt relieved after googling this imgage just now to discover that the carpincho is much more hamster-ish than rat-ish, because in all honestly, rat-like imagery is not very appetizing when discussing pizza crust substitutions.

Wait, what´s that?

Pizza crust substitutions?

That´s right! Carpincho meat is also known to occasionally replace traditional flour-based pizza crust on some dinner tables. (Shout out to Belén and Ramón for being wonderful people!!!! I stayed at their house for two nights for the feria franca expo in Yapeyu. They are really fantastic. We bonded quite a bit.)

The best part about carpincho is that it is cholesterol free! The pizza is also really good with fresh dill on it. 🙂

And while I don´t think I will necessarily be making homemade pizzas in the states with carpincho crusts (since I have never seen capybara meat in grocery stores)  I do think I might continue using dill. The dill was really really good.