I had a library volunteer whose mom is Korean. He told me the history of kimchi. He said the Japanese and Chinese soldiers tromped back and forth across Korea and stole what they could from Koreans. So the Koreans buried their possessions including their cabbage. It tasted so good after it had been buried for a while, they did that deliberately, added spices and other ingredients, thus creating kimchi.
(I looked up the history of kimchi and learned its history is more complicated than the above story.)