I've been craving Star Apples lately, or "Vú Sữa" in Vietnamese, which translates to "Mother's Breast Milk." These milky sweet fruits are known for the juice that lives up to their namesake, but you have to eat them correctly. And if you don't know how to eat them, there is a heart-wrenching folklore that teaches you the way. The legend has it....

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who was very loved and spoiled by his widowed mother. But despite receiving all his mother's love and sacrifices, the boy was still ungrateful. One day, after being scolded by his mom for a rotten deed, the boy decided to run away so he can be free to do what he wanted.

His mother was devastated and everyday, she waited in the garden for his return. Eventually, her exhausted broken heart gave in and she collapsed and passed away in the garden.

Meanwhile, the boy was acting out his rotten selfishness in the outside world, and of course people were not nearly as kind to him as his mother. After realizing that no one in this world loved him as much as his mother, he decided to return home.

When he reached the garden, exhausted and hungry, he called out for his mom, but only silence responded.  Realizing that his mom was no more, he painfully sobbed and collapsed by a tree in the garden that was not there the day he left.

Suddenly, the tree started to tremble and flowers white as clouds bloomed from the leaves. From the flowers, a strange fruit quickly grew that had shiny, smooth green skin. The tree tilted its branch and a fruit fell into the boy's hands.

The hungry boy impatiently took a bite from the fruit and immediately spat it out. "BLECH! Too bitter!"

The tree tilted again and handed the boy a second fruit. This time, he broke the fruit apart and took a bite directly into the flesh. But he bit the seeds and they were too hard.

The tree tilted again and handed the boy a third fruit. This time, he gently massaged the fruit until a slit opened, and a sweet milky liquid emerged. The starving boy drank the milk and realized it tasted just like mother's breast milk.

He looked up at the tree and observed that the tree's bark was rough and wrinkled like his mother's hands. The leaves were green on one side, like his mother's nurturing love, and red on the other side, like his mother's tear soaked eyes.

The leaves began to rustle and through them, he heard the message: "You must eat three times to know the fruit is sweet. You must be grown and wise to know a mother's love."

The boy broke down into uncontrollable sobs and hugged the tree. As he grew up, the boy shared the fruits from the tree to everyone around him, as he told them the story of the "Mother's Breast Milk" tree.