It's autumn in New England, and as the leaves change, my appetite is changing with them. For one thing, I've started drinking fewer Coronas and more Octoberfests—always a sure sign of the season.

Lately, I've had soup on my mind. Heck, last Saturday I ate twelve different kinds of it. Thanks to this gig as a food critic, I got to judge the soup and chowder and chili contest at the North Stonington PTO's annual fall festival.

On a chilly night a week before that, at 84 High Street Café in Westerly, I tried a Thai shellfish stew. At $21.99, I considered it a risk. That's pretty steep for a bowl of stew, no matter how much seafood you put in it, especially considering that it doesn't come with the side vegetables that all the other entrées include. The waitress claimed the julienned vegetables in the bowl counted as the side dish, but that just stinks. Nonetheless, it's a memorable, delicious soup, loaded with littlenecks, scallops, shrimp, and substantial chunks of crab. The spicy coconut cream broth is no joke, and tomatoes and roasted red peppers add warmth and depth. This stew is bold, and I appreciate a kitchen with cojones. Throw in a baked potato or a pasta side and I'll order it again.

On a brisk afternoon in Mystic that same weekend, I strolled up Water Street for a beer and a bite at the Voodoo Grill, renowned for its Cajun/Creole fare. I've enjoyed their gumbo a number of times, but this time I finally got around to tasting the award-winning crawfish and corn chowder ($5.95 a bowl). There was some debate at our table about what exactly we tasted—I swear there's some coconut milk in this one too, but the waitress insisted I was wrong—and I haven't been able to track down chef Tom Watts yet to extract the secret from him. Whatever he puts in it, it's got kick and I will be back for more. In the meantime, I found some good-looking recipes online for coconut seafood and corn chowders.

On a windy evening last week I warmed up with a cup of the tangy tom kha gai soup while reviewing Thai One On, the new restaurant on Route 27 in Mystic. I could live on this soup, and now there are two places to find it in Mystic—this new place and at Rice Spice Noodles next to the train station.

On a gray and blustery Saturday at the PTO festival, I sampled a dozen soups, and not a one of them with coconut broth. The other judge at the cook-off was Tom Gumpel, chief baker and vice president of the Panera Bread chain, a CIA-trained captain of the American team that won the 1999 world cup of baking in Paris, and, most importantly, the father of a North Stonington kindergartener. (Panera named its granola parfait after his daughter, Olivia.) Impressing me might be easy, but to impress Gumpel, you need to know your way around a kitchen.

Gumpel and I picked our favorites from six chowders and soups and six chilis. Joe Cherenzia repeated as champion in the soup and chowder contest, adding his own homemade sausage and broth to turn pasta fagioli into a first-class comfort food as only an Italian could. Kim Laabs won the chili contest with a nutmeg-spiced turkey chili with squash that paired perfectly with the season. Laabs and Cherenzia are both North Stonington parents.

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My autumn hasn't been all about soup. Last week I judged a "healthy dessert" competition in Niantic too. I tasted 14 desserts—yes, life is rough—with fellow judges Teresa Coffee of Coffee's Country Market & Catering in Old Lyme, Linda Sample of A Thyme to Cook catering in North Stonington, and Kevin Kendall of Olive Oyl's Carry Out Cuisine in Essex. All three of them work out at Advantage Personal Training, which hosted the event.

We chose winners for the tastiest dessert (pumpkin soufflé, only 101 calories), the healthiest (organic sweet potato cookies), and the easiest to make (pineapple angel food cake). A recipe for blackberry-pear cobbler received an honorable mention.