You were very fortunate. I have a carbon steel wok and I love to cook both various Chinese and Thai recipes, all fairly simple. The only Korean recipes I've used were for Korean BBQ short ribs and BBQ sauce. My wife made the recipe using the Gochagaru. It was from a spiralizer cookbook using daikon "rice". It was a very tasty version of Pork Bibimbap with Ginger Gochagaru.
I spent a lot of time in Asia in the early 90s (Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia & Singapore), so these are not alien flavors to me. I've only been cooking with them for a few years, though.