Killing me cheesily

Ack, I'm in hotel hell. I booked into a place in Beijing called the Tianlun Dynasty. It's in a great location, has a pool, free internet... and a filipino cover band butchering tunes like killing me softly right outside my window. I booked the place online and went for the special summer deal. Hah. Some deal. the place has a big indoor courtyard with fake palms and lots of Westerners sitting on deck chairs sipping drinks. My room faces in to that. They said all the other rooms are full tonight, but I've told them if I don't get an outside view I'm changing hotels. Of course, I've already paid in full for full days, but the good folks at expedia seemed willing to go to bat for me if it comes to it.
Ack, ack. It's a Kenny G. sax solo!
Anyway, on to more fun stuff that looks like it could kill me, too. The food I mean. There's a great strip of food vendors nearby. A veritable smorgosboard of wierdness. I started off light with some lamb and beef kebabs. Then a yummy beef, noodle and salad roll. I saw some kids walk by with cups of bubbling, smoking tea. I found the vendor and watched him drop a white cube of carbonate or something into the cup. Immediately it began to fizz and filled with what looked like dry ice. It was really refreshing. Still feeling peckish after the mushy meal Air China served on the flight up here, I ordered grilled squid. It flopped around on the stick, and was a bit chewy, but the sauce they put on it was tasty. There are lots of other things for me to try. Starfish for one. The vendors kept pointing to bright red crayfish and called them scorpions. Next booth down there's the real thing on skewers, in big and small sizes, right next to the crickets and beetles. I'll have to build up to those I think.