You're talking about Kimchi. It's marinaded underground in a chili sauce, the idea that it's actually rotten is ignorant at best, and yeah, the stuff rocks. There is NOTHING better in the world for beating a flu.
Whoever told you about it being rotten obviously didn't actually know what they were talking about.
And that it doesn't taste great, when made right.
I'm a huge fan of haggis, but people who've never even see one go 'ewww' but will happily eat sausages. They won't eat somthing that's cooked in a sheeps stomach, despite the fact that the stomach isn't eaten, but will happily eat pigs intestines, where poo is made. Ignorant hypocracy at its finest.