It was a day of many coincidences when my dining companion and I went in search of a spring salad. One of those coincidences was wandering into Verdi Restaurant and Bar on the very day it introduced a menu with nine new salads.

For me, the best salads have a mix of deep greens, coupled with a simple yet complementary contrast of textures and flavors that might include meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, cheeses and the like. Verdi delivered!

The Greek salad at Verdi offered the traditional black olives, pepperoncinis and feta cheese, but where else can you add swordfish, ahi tuna, a seafood skewer or grilled salmon, shrimp or chicken? And these can be added to any salad! Then there’s the calamari salad that includes calamari, tomato, red onion and croutons on a bed of spinach. The merging of flavors was full of ingenuity and imagination – but perhaps for some of the salads, it was imagination gone wild.

When it came to the Verdi summer salad that my dining companion ordered, the salad included mixed greens, strawberries, tomatoes, candied walnuts, homemade croutons, molten Brie cheese and golden-brown coconut shrimp. That’s six distinctly different tastes, three different soft textures and three different coarse textures, plus the lettuce!

A culinary rule of thumb is to keep it simple. Each bite should have an appetizing flavor combination, no matter what gets put on or left off the fork. When I was offered a bite, I found myself avoiding the strawberry/tomato combination and couldn’t imagine trying to chew a crouton and a candied walnut in the same bite. I would have preferred simplicity. The Brie was on the pungent side, but a flavorful treat in its own right.

Don’t get me wrong – I found all of Verdi’s salads imaginative and I can’t wait to try another after having the crunchy portobello.

This was a breaded portobello mushroom, mixed greens, kalamata olives, bleu cheese crumbles and croutons. Although the breading on the mushrooms was too heavy for a salad and the croutons unnecessary, I enjoyed each bite and opted for the balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

This dressing worked well for my salad, but not for the Verdi salad, and my dining companion asked for the Greek dressing instead. Verdi offers a large selection of dressings listed on the menu, but our server only mentioned a few. I’m assuming this is because the menu is new.

The only other salad I thought had too many ingredients was the swordfish Thai salad. Again the salad included tomatoes and cucumbers that seemed out of place, as well as celery strips, candied walnuts, swordfish and sesame Thai dressing that sound deliciously unique together.

Verdi is a mix of Bosnian, German, Italian and Greek cooking, so it’s no wonder there are a variety of ingredients on each salad, just as there are as many different types of food on the menu. The new menu includes pastas and gourmet pizzas as well as a variety of entrees, sandwiches and soups.

Ironically the chef emerged at the end of our meal to randomly ask if we liked our salads since this was the first day they had been served. He told us he would be doing some fine-tuning once he received customer feedback. I encourage you to use a warm spring day to your advantage. Sit on Verdi’s patio on the square, try a salad and offer your input.

Verdi Restaurant & Bar

410 Main Ave.

Bowling Green, KY

781-9817

www.verdibg.com

Lunch Hours:

Monday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Dinner Hours:

Monday-Thursday: 5 p.m.-9 p.m.

Friday and Saturday: 5 p.m.-10 p.m.

Sunday: Closed

Cuisine: Bosnian, Greek, Italian, German

Specialties: Gourmet pizza, pasta and European entrees

Price range for salads: $5 to $10.50

Libation situation: Full bar

Smoking: On patio only