Freshly Grated Parmesan

Tell me when

Ever eat at an Italian restaurant?  I mean, c'mon, who hasn't?  Italian restaurants are great, in my opinion.  I love Italian food for it's butter and garlic and bread and pasta and all of that.  I'm sure I've been eating a rather Americanized Italian food experience most of my life, but I can't say for sure, I've never been to Italy.  Well anyway, one thing I've noticed at Italian restaurants that I've eaten at, is their offering of freshly grated Parmesan and that awkward moment of them doing the act for you.

Okay here's the situation, you've downed your appetizer, you drank a glass of wine or beer, perhaps you ate a salad, and now you got your delicious main course set in front of you.  The server turns to you and asks if you want freshly grated Parmesan on your food.  "Why, yes, that sounds great!" you exclaim.  So they whip out the white grater thingy and start a-turnin' the handle with the instruction "tell me when to stop."  They start and it throws down a little on top, and you feel like you should say "okay, that's enough."  But I don't want them to stop.  Heck, I'm paying for this meal, I want my moneys worth.  Keep going, Parmesan grinder.  After a few twists, I think they expect you to say stop so they sort of slow down, but you didn't tell them to, so they keep going on, wondering if it will ever end.  Is there a stopping point?  What amount of Parmesan is too much?  I love Parmesan cheese, I want a lot.  If you put the can of it in front of me, I'm going to use the hell out of it.  But when someone else is in control, you feel that you have to say "when" even when that's not as much as you would like.  Although, I must admit, I've never gone longer than just slightly longer than what you would consider normal, I always want to just let them keep on grinding just to see if they will pull the plug on the operation themselves.  They say they want you to tell them to stop, but everyone knows there is an unwritten amount you're supposed to accept, even if it's not enough.  I want my free cheese.

Know what I mean?