William Do of Laowai Noodles is again selling his coveted Neijiang “sweetwater” noodle kits.

Last summer, with thousands of people clamoring for his hit Lanzhou noodle kits, William Do decided to take an indefinite break. It wasn’t clear when or if his pandemic-born pop-up, Laowai Noodles, would return.

But after several months of travel and introspection, Do has brought Laowai back. The former Mister Jiu’s sous-chef is again selling tian shui mian, hand-pulled Sichuanese “sweetwater” noodles he painstakingly makes from five kinds of grains. The chilled, springy noodles get dressed with thoughtful, scratch-made toppings like an earthy perilla seed paste, velvety garlic confit and a forceful Lanzhou chili crisp.

Do will also soon offer pickups at Stonemill Matcha in San Francisco, starting with a special collaboration on May 13. The noodles will highlight Stonemill ingredients, such as a new sauce made from nutty hojicha tea and roasted sorghum. Instead of his usual textural topping of crushed peanuts, there will be a blend of crispy, puffed Japanese grains, including brown mochi rice. In the future, Do may also host pop-ups at Stonemill Matcha, whose pastry chef Mikiko Yui he knows from his time at San Francisco’s State Bird Provisions.

As word spread about Do’s noodles in early 2021, they quickly became one of the Bay Area’s most sought-after dishes. The waiting list grew to about 4,000 people by last June, with messages pouring in daily from customers wondering when they would get to try the noodles. For months, he worked seven days a week to produce as many noodles and condiments as possible. But as a one-man operation cooking out of a home kitchen, meeting the enormous demand became both financially and emotionally unsustainable. Do realized it was time for a break when his wife asked him when they would be able to spend a weekend together again.

“I wasn’t making time for myself or other people. I was just getting absorbed in the craft,” Do said. “I think it’s about finding that balance that works.”

William Do, owner of Laowai Noodles, prepares to pull da kuan, a large-width noodle, at his home in Daly City.

Do took the last eight months to focus on his well-being and think about the future of the business. He quietly started making noodles again a few weeks ago and is slowly chipping away at the wait list. Despite much apprehension, he raised the prices of the noodle kits from $20 to $37 to reflect a steep spike in ingredient costs and the intense labor it takes to make them. The kits come with two tangles of uncooked Neijiang noodles, enough for two people, and the various toppings to assemble at home. Customers can add on a jar of aromatic chili crisp ($13), which Do concocts from a secret mix of chiles and spices over 24 hours.

He plans to transition to Tock soon, but for now people can place orders through a Google form.

Laowai Noodles, named for the Mandarin slang for foreigner, is a personal passion project for Do. Raised in a Chinese-Cambodian-Vietnamese family in San Francisco, he never felt like he fit into a single cultural box. His food explores that dynamic identity, merging noodle-making traditions he studied in China (where classmates called him “laowai,” despite his Chinese heritage) with Bay Area culinary experience at Mister Jiu’s, State Bird Provisions and the Progress in San Francisco.

Down the line, Do hopes to open his own noodle shop in San Francisco.

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany

Elena Kadvany joined The San Francisco Chronicle as a food reporter in 2021. Previously, she was a staff writer at the Palo Alto Weekly and its sister publications, where she covered restaurants and education and also founded the Peninsula Foodist restaurant column and newsletter.