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Regardless of whether the noun is countable or not, it would typically still be "too much" when referring to how much you've eaten.
Consider the scenario where you've had only one steak (countable noun), but you had too much steak.
Of course, it's not always like this. You might say that you had too many cookies for dessert.
Depends whether you consider the noun countable or not. Too many peas, too much mashed potato. It's purely semantics, I think we can consider refried beans an edge case.
No such thing. You can never have enough.
Mmmmmmm.... Beans
I believe the customary phrase is "pull my finger."
"This isn't what I asked for."
"But... It's refried beans."
"Exactly. Beans. I specifically said one refried bean. This is too many refried beans!"
It depends on whether you're referring to individual refried beans or the dish 'refried beans' as a whole.
If it's the former, it would be 'too many' (individual) refried beans.
If it is the latter, it would be 'too much' (of) refried beans... Unless you had multiple servings, in which case it would be 'too many' (servings of) refried beans.
That is my opinion: as such it is subject to change should further information come to light.
you just discovered why we say 'traffic' and not 'there were many trafficks on my way in this morning'.
(It's also why 'experiences' and 'emails' is very often wrong if we followed established rules like in the former instead of gleefully making up the very exceptions we then curse, like in the latter case.)
Obviously this is very context dependant, but here's my take:
"I ate too many refried beans" = in one meal, I consumed more refried beans than I should have
"I ate too much refried beans" = over the course of an extended period of time, I ate meals consisting of refried beans more frequently than I should have
Shouldn't it be "too much of"?
I would say 'too much'; I never talk about a single refried bean (throwing out the whole thing that refritos aren't necessarily even fried twice...)
It seems like the problem goes away if you add a "the." I had too much of the refried beans.
Your point is fair, but I respectfully disagree. "Beans" being plural makes me want to use "many." "I had too many of the refried beans" parses fine for me.
Counter question:
Would you also use "many" for mashed potatoes, since potatoes is plural?
I don't think I've ever been asked to quantify mashed potatoes in such a way, but after reflecting for a moment, yes. Thank you for an interesting question.
I've eaten too many corn.
Nah, you're alright; you just had too much maize.
Corn(s)
Because refried beans are as you mention no longer countable, I think "refried beans" should be taken all together as a singular compound noun rather than the word "beans" modified by an adjective. So then "too much refried beans" is the correct way to say it because it isn't plural.
“Too many” if you’re referring to the beans themselves. “Too much” if you’re referring to refried beans as a dish you have been served.
Edit: just remember: “too many” as reference to a quantity of things, “too much” as reference to a volume or a quantity/amount of a thing. In this case, the “thing” was the dish being served (refried beans). Since it was the dish, itself, being considered (not each individual bean) the phrase was being dealt with, grammatically, as one whole unit— a dish that was served to you, of which you had too much.
"Too many refried beans"
"Too much refried bean"
Same for scrambled eggs.
"Too many scrambled eggs"
"Too much scrambled egg"
You would say "too much mash potato" rather than "too many mash potatoes", and the consistency is similar
Difference is with "refried beans" the countable noun is plural ("refried beanS" vs "mash potato").
Saying "too much refried bean" sounds a bit more natural.
I would have said "mashed potato" for your first example.
This is literally the first time I've ever heard mashed potato be singular. My phone even tried to make it plural.
Probably one of those regional variations that would look interesting overlaid on a map..
