You might be thinking of Surstromming, the Swedish delicacy. It is basically canned rotted herring. I smelled it once briefly and had to leave the room. It smells worse than dead bodies.
I think food like that is the gastronomical equivalent of Jackson Pollock art. A few “classy” folks want to pull one over on society, so they convince people that something obviously offensive, worthless or stupid is “cool”, and you’re not with the hip crowd if you don’t try or appreciate it. Anyone that does so subsequently doesn’t want to look like a dumbass for falling for it, so they keep the ruse running and we end up with canned stuff that smells like dead bodies and people paying millions for splatter on a canvas that you’d time-out your 3 year old for doing on his bedroom walls...