While you wait for lunch in a restaurant in Belize, you can get a delicious aroma of the rice and chicken stew cooked in annatto infused oil. Adding a reddish tingeand mild earthy flavor to rice, chicken and meat dishes of Latin America, annatto has been used in ancient times by the Aztecs to intensify the color of their chocolate drinks in ceremonial offerings to their Gods. Better known as achiote in Mexico and the Caribbean, annatto is present in Latin American seasonings such as sofrito, recado, sazon and adobo. Indigenous to Latin America, annattowas brought by the Spanish to the Philippines and by the Portuguese to India and Southeast Asia. The seeds are a dark red color,and in Latin America,the Caribbean, Spain and the Philippines, they are fried in oil or lard to give a striking golden orange hue to the oil or lard, and which is then used to cook rice, stews, fish and meat. Annatto is used as a rub for pork, chicken, or seafood which are then barbequed, stewed or fried