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味よりも先に香り、温度、食感……。たった一口で何とも面白い。そして当然のように味はこの上ない。

いいモナカだった。

食べるに楽しい、何よりおいしい。

リコリス・リコイル Ordinary days

How should I understand the usage of the bold に?

Is it like 思うに, 察するに, etc.?

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It is possible to understand it as the same as 思うに:

に

［接助］活用語の連体形に付く。

１ あとの叙述の前置きとして続ける意を表す。…と。…ところ。「考えてみる―庶民のための政治は当分望めそうにない」「こともあろう―警官にけんかを売るとは」

It would mean eating it, it is fun.

Another way to look at it is to think that 食べるに restricts the context of 楽しい: fun to eat.

I don't see this usage very often (食べるに楽しい is not common) and perhaps that is why it is not explicitly listed in the dictionary above, but it is the same as: 想像するに難くない=not difficult to imagine.

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  • I find it mildly amusing, the overlap between に and "to", both as directionals and in this specific construction. 😄
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Dec 13, 2022 at 0:22
  • Just to supplement your explanation, because of classical japanese, sometimes in modern japanese nominalizarion is not needed so, 想像するに難くない is virtually the same as 想像するのに難くない. 連体形 of verbs ＋に (also from classical japanese) is virtually turning the verbs into adverbs and that modifies the verb and that's why I don't think it's same as 思うに etc. 食べるに doesn't make sense as an adverb and it does not indicate a preamble as the definition you brought says.
    – Manab
    Dec 13, 2022 at 0:33
  • "思うに" "From what I think" in the example from the dictionary cleary modifies "望めそうにない". 食べるに, on the other hand sounds odd as an adverb that modifies 楽しい.
    – Manab
    Dec 13, 2022 at 0:37
  • 思うに="Something being "thoughtly" X" or 察するに= " Something being presumably X" make sense, but "Something being "eatingly" fun" sounds a bit odd to me.
    – Manab
    Dec 13, 2022 at 0:54

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