German expat returns to Taiwan for love

Taipei, April 5 (CNA) Taiwan is a noted destination for world-class gourmet food and such a good place to live that one German expatriate gave up a high paid position to return, according to a report published Sunday by the China Times.

"Taiwan, I'm back!" said Angelika Hilger (賀安琪), who was appointed marketing director of German luxury-car maker Audi AG's Taiwan branch on March 9.

Hilger served in the same position when Audi Taiwan was established in March 2009 until she was promoted to head of customer experience at Audi's German headquarters in 2012. On leaving, Hilger took an electric rice cooker made by Tatung Co. (大同) back to Germany with her, where she hoped to cook her own Taiwanese food, the newspaper said.

The 47-year-old described her three years in Taiwan as "the perfect integrated life," which is why she jumped at the chance to return when Audi Taiwan President Ryan Searle offered her the position, despite the reduced likelihood of future opportunities for promotion, according to the report.

The highest-ranked female manager in Taiwan's car industry recalled that when she first came to Taiwan in 2009, she started learning Mandarin by buying fruit at a small stand next to her home.

Hilger was also moved by the enthusiastic female shopkeeper who treated her to mango and talked to her patiently despite the shopkeeper's faltering English.

She was especially impressed with her first meal of pork dumplings filled with soup broth (Xiaolong Bao) at renowned Taiwan-based dumpling chain Din Tai Fung, where a waitress kindly reminded her to be careful of the hot soup in the dumplings.

Because of her passion for Taiwanese gourmet food, one of the first things Hilger did on returning to Taiwan was to sign up for a cooking class and she looks forward to introducing her German compatriots to gourmet Taiwanese food.

(By Jeffrey Wu)ENDITEM / AW