Star apple, or caimito, is the round, apple-sized fruit of Chrysophyllum cainito, an evergreen tree of the sapodilla family native to the Greater Antilles and lowland Central America. Its smooth, leathery skin ripens to deep purple or pale green, and when the fruit is cut across the middle the seed cells fan out into the pale, gelatinous star that gives it its name. Inside sits soft, milky-sweet, faintly grape-like pulp — mild, gently perfumed and best simply scooped with a spoon. Across the Caribbean, tropical America and Southeast Asia, and above all in Vietnam, where it is cherished as vú sữa, or "mother's milk", it is prized as a delicate hand fruit.