One time I went to a Greek restaurant with my husband and son. While we were waiting for our food, I smelled something bad, and I got mad at my son accusing him of not changing his socks. The smell was so strong, it smelled like smelly feet.
My husband loves cheese, and later, our order for Saganaki (I think that is the name) for deep fried cheese. All of a sudden, I began to suspect that maybe it is the cheese that smell bad, not my son's socks. I asked him to pull his feet a little closer for me to take a sniff.
It is the cheese that smelled. Maybe my sense of smell is stronger, but other restaurant customers did not seem to mind the smell.
So, in reply to the Filipino couple with their tilapia food smelling like decomposing corpse to the New York nuns, the nuns may also have an oversensitive sense of smell.
In my own experience, I have to cover my nose in stores if we pass the candle section or anything like that...it's especially bad at the mall...as soon as you enter, the nail salon smells like rubber balls, and then right after that, the candy store's roasting almonds And they have entire shops dedicated to potpourri and candles!!