strange fruit

i got these mini tomatoes from tokyo mart the other day. they are this vivid so-red-its-almost-pink red, tiny (about 1½ inches in diameter), and look more like pin cushions than actual tomaters. they are really cute.

they are also really odd; besides the crazy red colour, the stems are super-furry, the skin is tough (easy to peel, though), and this is what they look like when cut open:



no seeds! not a one! wha? they are very flavourful, too. without the seeds, they are not watery, not bitter at all. it is as if someone took a bigger tomato, scooped out some flesh with a melon baller, then covered it with a bio-engineered skin. the closest i can come to describing the taste is that its like a fresh version of a sun-dried tomato--concentrated, sweet, raisiny, without a trace of saltiness or bitterness.

the label is so completely unhelpful, so i don't know what variety of fruit this is. i think it might be a ceylon tomato but i'm not sure. does anyone know?