If it were that horrible, it wouldn’t have been popular for at least 7500 years, eh?
It’s all about food availability — fermenting was a method of food preservation (still is), as is salt, heat, etc. Been around for a long, long time.
It certainly makes sense. Image a salmon run. The rivers and streams are quiet all year round, and then one day, BAM—you could almost walk on the fish all the way across a river. People, bears, wolves, eagles, crows and ravens all descend on the waterways to eat until they drop.
In a few weeks, the rivers are empty again.
Be a shame just to let it all rot where the critters can get to it? Why not put it all in pits that can be guarded and uncovered as people needed to eat for the rest of the year?
And rotted fish taste better than nothing at all.
MrT5 was fond of kimchee as well as that Thai fish sauce stuff-but unless I were starving, I’d have opted for something-anything-but fish sauce or kimchee. I’m not squeamish about most food-I will eat brains and eggs, grilled rattlesnake, etc, but my liking for the fermented pretty much stops at sourdough bread and adult beverages...
It is when starvation is the alternative.
I have eaten some rather nasty tasting/smelling things when I was hungry. Or a guest.